I am a huge Tana French fan and have read and enjoyed all her previous books. She's a terrific stylist and has a fine ear for dialogue. For notes on plot and character development, please check other reviews, because mine is brief: this novel is one long dark downward spiral — not only the most depressing book I have ever read, but one with deeply unpleasant characters, moral murkiness, obvious plot points which other reviews insist on calling surprising, and about a hundred pages which a thoughtful editor could have cut without a pang. To me, this feels like exploring the furthest reach of the unreliable narrator – to no purpose.

I really didn't like this. It was very slow and long. I only finished because I thought that the end would be surprising. It wasn't. This should have been a Do Not Finish book for me.

I can't remember now which Tana French titles I've read in the past... they were on kindle, and something about that makes them always seem less "real" to me - I can't ever hold on to the titles of thrillers I've read on kindle. Sometimes it's even surprising later to see the actual book and how long or short it was. Anyway, I bought this one in a hardback copy and read it this weekend. I did glance over the poor reviews before getting it, but the thing that stood out to me was that the people who didn't love it said that it was too different than her other work. As I didn't even remember the titles of the other Tana French I had read (I mean, I liked them enough to read her again after reading one, but didn't really love them)... to me this was a good sign, maybe. And it was. I loved this book. I won't give spoilers, but it's tangled enough to keep you interested even if you already know the main answer, if you know what I mean. But the main thing to me is that the writing itself is beautiful. Highly recommended!

I love this author's writing style and her amazingly complicated, and fully believable characters, rolled splendidly into a spellbinding plot. I'm so sad it is over! I plan to re-read it soon.

I thought this standalone was fantastic. Tana French is a master at the slow burn - and then really giving it to you at the end. Very character driven, as are all her stories, this was such an interesting topic with so many twists and turns, very much in her usual amazing style. Very satisfying.