Book Review | Faithful Place by Tana French

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The course of Frank Mackey's life was set by one defining moment when he was nineteen: the moment his girlfriend, Rosie Daly, failed to turn up for their rendezvous in Faithful Place, failed to run away with him to London as they had planned. Frank never heard from her again.


Twenty years on, Frank is still in Dublin, working as an undercover cop. He's cut all ties with his dysfunctional family. Until his sister calls to say that Rosie's suitcase has been found. Frank embarks on a journey into his past that demands he re-evaluate everything he believes to be true.

***

Tana French has been a cut above from the word go. Her haunting debut In the Woods left no doubt in my mind that a distinctive new voice in crime fiction had spoken up, demanding a fair hearing, and though French's next novel had its issues - perhaps The Likeness was a touch too Murder She Wrote in the belief-beggaring mystery of coincidence at its core - nevertheless its was a gripping read, so taut and thrilling and refreshingly character-driven most longtime crime writers would have stood to learn a thing or two from it.


Well you ain't seen nothin' yet.


Faithful Place in French's best yet, and by a country mile. With a brilliantly conflicted new protagonist to come to grips with, and a grim new neighbourhood with its very own closet full of skeletons to explore, the Irish import of the hour ably breaks away from the pack, delivering an unabashedly heartfelt portrait of a people, a place, and a time.


Twenty years ago, Frank Mackey planned to escape Faithful Place with his gorgeous girlfriend, Rosie Daly. The son and the daughter of two tight-knit families at war with one another over a long-forgotten grudge, these star-cross'd lovers had hoped to run away from the estate, to take off towards the bright city lights of London and never return. In secret the pair packed their bags, arranged with great care a rendezvous point from which they would stage their daring flight, and bided their sweet time.


But come the appointed hour, there was no sign of Rosie. Frank waited for her the whole night through... but nothing. And with the dawning of the next day came the dawning realisation that the love of his life had stood him up. Rather than coming crawling back to the Mackeys, with his tail between his legs, Frank resolved instead to forge on with the plan, such as it was.


The one that got away has been the bane of his existence ever since, so when Frank - an undercover detective now, working for the Dublin police force - when Frank gets wind of the discovery of a suitcase filled with Rosie's things stuffed up the chimney flue of Number 16, Faithful Place, and returns home to hear tell of a rank smell as of rotting rats in the same abandoned building shortly after he and the Daly girl were presumed to have run away together, he must face the very real possibility that twenty years ago, Rosie met a markedly more awful fate than the life he has imagined her living ever since: murder.


As dark as anything Tana French has written, as fraught with cruelty, loss, and the corruption of quiet hope, Faithful Place is yet an indelibly endearing novel. Charming in a thuggish sort of sense, say like Jason Statham coming home for a cup of tea, and funny in the way a Glasgow kiss might be, if it went badly wrong - as so often such things do - Faithful Place will surely grab you from the get-go, disarming you with its warmth and its humanity, disturbing you with its brutal honesty, and insight.


It's somewhat off-kilter as far as crime fiction goes - but then this author has made that style of narrative her stock in trade - and perhaps French can be a little over-verbose when directness is all such-and-such a moment demands, but these are niggles... nothings, really, next to the fabulously alarming way your heart will pound when inevitably, Frank confronts a killer.


Faithful Place is crime fiction at its very finest. A tragic tale, brilliantly told... loving but bittersweet... and told with such prescient truth that you'll be a mess well before the end: the latest from Tana French? Fecking superb. 

***

Faithful Place

by Tana French

UK Publication: March 2011, Hodder & Stoughton (PB)
US Publication: July 2010, Viking Adult (HC)


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IndieBound / The Book Depository

Recommended and Related Reading

Book Review | Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones

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Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com
IndieBound / The Book Depository

When Andrew Hope's magician grandfather dies, he leaves his house and field-of-care to his grandson who spent much of his childhood at the house. Andrew has forgotten much of this, but he remembers the very strong-minded staff and the fact that his grandfather used to put the inedibly large vegetables on the roof of the shed, where they'd have vanished in the morning. He also remembers the very colourful stained glass window in the kitchen door, which he knows it is important to protect.


Into this mix comes young Aidan Cain, who turns up from the orphanage asking for safety. Exactly who he is and why he's there is unclear, but a strong connection between the two becomes apparent.


There is a mystery to be solved, and nothing is as it appears to be. But nobody can solve the mystery until they find out exactly what it is!

***

I came late to Diana Wynne Jones. I'll spare you the ins and outs of that delightful discovery, but the long and short of the story is: Neil Gaiman said she was awesome. And so she was.

Actually, perhaps I should explain.

This was right around the time Harry Potter was getting to be a big thing. Seemed like everyone who was anyone was filing suit against J. K. Rowling back then, for stealing their ideas or some such nonsense. Someone had asked Neil, through his blog I do believe, back in the early days, about The Books of Magic, whose central character - was it Tim? - shared a certain few similarities with the aforementioned Hogwarts inductee. Someone was asking whether Neil meant to jump on the bandwagon too.

He did not. Wise beyond his years even then, before he had quite so many, he pointed to another novel, by an author of his acquaintance - Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, none other - and insisted her work bore rather more of a resemblance to early Potter than anything in The Books of Magic, and Diana wasn't fixing to do anything about it, so he'd be holding off on the lawyers too, thank you very much.

Several Chrestomanci books later, I found Howl's Moving Castle, and from then on - perhaps even before - I was in like Flynn. As they say.


Maybe I'm embellishing a little, but that's how I remember it happening. In any event, in Diana Wynne Jones I found a quintessentially British fantasy author whose work has never since failed to move me. Jones seems to write in a state of controlled delirium, building character and narrative so naturally and with such ease you'd be forgiven for thinking it was all a happy accident, yet there is a practiced delicacy about her prose, a predilection towards little flourishes that makes all the difference, and such boundless enthusiasm, such spirit, warmth, and generosity.


Diana Wynne Jones died last week.


I found out about that through Neil Gaiman, too.


I was hours wandering about with a lump in my throat, at the thought. Never did I meet the woman, and in truth it's been a few years since I last read her, but by no means had I left her behind, for from the first she'd won a precious place in my heart alongside all my other childhood favourites: Roald Dahl, Brian Jacques, Christopher Pike... and Diana Wynne Jones.


So when I heard the tragic news, rather than go on moping about her death - which I very much doubt she'd approve of - I resolved to do the only thing I could to celebrate her life: read some Diana Wynne Jones. Was it by some magical happenstance that I happened to have a copy of her latest to hand? Let's say it was.


Enchanted Glass is a short, sweet, sugar-coated treat of a story about Andrew Hope, a teacher - not a professor! - who moves into Melstone House following the death of his grandfather, a powerful magician. Andrew, however, finds he has inherited more than mere property; so too are the responsibilities of his grandfather's field-of-care now under his purview. If only Andrew knew what a field-of-care was...


More pressing is the care and attention young Aidan Cain requires of Andrew. A runaway, but not from his parents, Aidan's on the lam from an army of shadowy creatures that seem to mean him harm, so when he turns up at Melstone House seeking safe-haven, Andrew takes the wee waif in. Together, they hope to overcome the troubles before them - but first they'll have to figure out exactly what their troubles are.


Enchanted Glass whips by like nobody's business. I read it in a single sitting, and I'm a meticulous (read: rather slow) reader. The narrative is no great shakes, in the end; the lay of the land here is a known quantity, if only to us - indeed its familiarity feels reassuring. Think The Sorcerer's House meets The BFG. What raises Enchanted Glass itself up beyond the humdrum is its cast of characters. A curious pair, Andrew and Aidan quickly establish a wonderful rapport with one another, and their banter is frank, lively and refreshing. The household staff, however, steal the show: in particular Mrs Stock with her compulsion to arrange the sitting room furniture just so and Mr Stock - no relation - with his prize vegetable punishments.


There is some cartoonishness to Enchanted Glass I could have done without, and when all the crazy comes to head during the climactic fete things get a little confusing, but whatever. Reading Enchanted Glass felt to me like coming home. A few years from now, I'll read it again, and then, perhaps, it will be.


It breaks my heart that Diana Wynne Jones is dead, but if there's any justice in the world, any goodness - and if Enchanted Glass is anything to go by, there is - her work at least will live on for a long time to come.

***

Enchanted Glass
by Diana Wynne Jones

UK Publication: January 2010, HarperCollins Children's Books
US Publication: April 2010, Green Willow Books


Buy this book from

Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com
IndieBound / The Book Depository

Recommended and Related Reading

Coming Attractions | The Vandermeers Are Weird

This morning marked the arrival of the latest catalogue from one of speculative fiction's classiest new imprints: that would be Corvus, of course.

Corvus' release calendar through the rest of 2011 is wall to wall with stories worth getting excited about - they are legion, let me tell you  - but we've nine whole months to get psyched up for new Neal Stephenson, Dead Water by Simon Ings, volume two of The Chung Kuo, Daylight on Iron Mountain, and all the rest of 'em. Today, I want to talk a bit about a book I've been anticipating for what seems an age.

See, for myself, I adore a good compendium. And Weird looks to be second to none.

Have a blurb:

"From Lovecraft to Borges to Gaiman, a century of intrepid literary experimentation has created a corpus of dark and strange stories that transcend all known genre boundaries. Together these stories form The Weird and amongst its practitioners number some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature.

"Weird features an all star cast of authors, from classics to international bestsellers to Booker prize winners. Here are Ben Okri, George R.R. Martin and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Angela Carter and Kelly Link, Franz Kafka and China Miéville, Clive Barker and Haruki Murakami, M.R. James and Neil Gaiman, Mervyn Peake and Michael Chabon. 

"Exotic and esoteric, Weird plunges you into dark domains and brings you face to face with surreal monstrosities; you won’t find any elves or wizards here. These are the boldest and most downright peculiar stories from the last hundred years bound: the biggest Weird collection ever assembled."

The Vandermeers have been years putting this behemoth together, teasing it from time to tantalising time over at Ecstatic Days. Elsewhere too, I'm sure. And it's no coincidence that Weird has been so long in the making. I don't imagine Ann and Jeff Vandermeer are anthologists at all prone to taking no for an answer, and with Weird clocking it at "much longer" than 800 pages in TPB and so boundlessly ambitious as to aim, as per the pitch, to present a comprehensive taxonomy of the old weird, the new weird and the plain weird... my point, I think, bears out.

Weird is set to be a definitive exploration of all that the weird has to offer. And no, I don't give a hoot that some somebodies somewhere have decided the weird is dead. It isn't to me. Surely my anticipation for this one compendium to rule them all speaks to that.

Perhaps it's a fools errand to get so worked up about it when there's still five more months to go before I can lay hands on the blasted thing... but damn. Just look at all those pretty contributors: imagine China Mieville, bookended by George R. R. Martin on the one side and Haruki Murakami on the other!

A beautiful thing, no?

Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, will be along from Corvus in October. And not a moment too soon.

###

For all those asking, here's a link to an image of the Special Edition's listing in Corvus' new catalogue. With pricing, format details - even a touch of tentacle humour! :)

First Impressions | The Borgias

When it came time for me to pick what subjects I wanted to study in my last years at high school, I plumped for Geography over History. History in my experience had amounted to an interminable series of dates and family trees to memorise, and the hell with that, I thought: I'll learn about glaciation. Something good and practical, you know?

I have a great many regrets in life - don't we all? - and that decision, I'll say, is a way from uppermost amongst them. However I have, in the years since, had cause to wish I'd had the opportunity to study both, because I really do adore a good historical drama, whether in one medium or another, and my education, alas, has left me practically clueless as to the veracity of such narratives.

That's the glass half empty perspective. The glass half full point of view is that I can forgive a vast amount of historical inaccuracy, thanks to my ignorance. I simply don't know any better! And that can come in handy.

To wit: all I knew about The Borgias, before the feature-length pilot episode of Showtime's new series of the same name, was that in last year's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood I, as Ezio Auditore, stabbed one Juan Borgia in the ugly face and dropped another - namely Cesare - off the battlements of a crumbling castle.

I know a little more now, though I've little doubt what The Borgias has taught me about  the infamous Italian family fathered by Pope Alexander VI - played here by Academy Award-winner Jeremy Irons with arched eyebrows and aplomb - is any more accurate a reflection of true events as the Templar conspiracy theory played out in the last Assassin's Creed. The pay cable station which gave us Dexter and The Tudors are in their infinite wisdom positioning The Borgias as Spartacus meets The Sopranos, and in fairness it's easy to see why: going from the first hour and a half, the presumably much-embellished tale of the rise and fall of "the original crime family" seems equal parts guilty pleasure and storytelling masterstroke. Creator, writer and director Neil Jordan - he of The Crying Game, and of late the lovely Ondine - brings to The Borgias an elegance and a clarity very far from the blood and balls of Spartacus, yet you can sense the potential for sleaze and salaciousness in every narrative margin. Be sure, there will be blood - there has already been blood - not to mention sex, secrets, and all the rest of it.

The pilot episode of The Borgias is essentially a showcase of the series' biggest get in terms of talent, the aforementioned Jeremy Irons. It is his journey in microcosm: from corrupt patriarch to Pope and back again, via a beautiful woman - the lovely Lotte Verbeek as Giulia Farnese - who comes to the Vatican to confess her grave sins, and an attempted poisoning, courtesy of Cadfael himself, Derek Jacobi as Orsino Orsini. Irons, for his part, chews the ornate mise en scene of every tableau he's a part of. One can only hope he continues as central a character to The Borgias as he begins, for daddy Borgia's support is rather less convincing thus far: Joanne Whaley as his suffering wife is no Edie Falco, though I suppose there's time for her yet, and David Oakes - last seen as the villain of The Pillars of the Earth - makes immodest every scene he's in. Meanwhile the jury's still out on newcomer Francois Arnaud as Cesare Borgia. There's certainly potential for the French Canadian to grow into this pivotal role; what he makes of it, or indeed doesn't, remains to be seen.

At that, there's a lot about The Borgias it would be fair to apply the same caveat to. It could very well devolve into a romp, or else ascend to the heights of Rome, if not David Chase's modern mafia masterpiece. All one can speak to at this early stage is the promise of this feature-length first episode, and one imagines - with no small amount of trepidation - that showrunner Neil Jordan is likely to be rather less hands-on going forward. Nevertheless, he gets The Borgias off to a sterling start.

Books Received | The BoSS for 03/04/11

Met the old BoSS? Well, let me introduce you to the new BoSS - same as the old BoSS, more or less... except less is more. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

All caught up? Excellent. Let's get on with it, then.

After last week's high, the good stuff just keeps on coming. We're looking at at least two sure things this week: The Company Man and Fenrir - both the sophomore efforts of authors returning from sterling debuts I just so happened to read right around this time last year - and add to that an interesting new series the trend-setters at Gollancz are boldly proclaiming "The Best Debut Fantasy of 2011."

We're in for a fun one, I imagine. :)

***

The Company Man

by Robert Jackson Bennett

Vital Statistics

Published in the UK

on 07/04/11

by Orbit

Review Priority

5 (A Sure Thing)

The Blurb: A trolley car pulls into the station with eleven dead bodies inside. Four minutes before, the factory workers were seen boarding at the previous station. Now, all are dead. And all of them are union.

The year is 1919. The McNaughton Corporation is the pinnacle of American industry. They built airships that crossed the seas. Guns that won the Great War. And above all, they built Evesden: the city of tomorrow, dominated by the immense McNaughton Tower.

But something is rotten at the heart of Evesden, and one man must uncover its dark secret before it all goes up in flames. Caught between the union and the company, between the police and the victims, McNaughton investigator Cyril Hayes must find the truth behind the city of the future. Because if he doesn't... he's history.

A Scotsman's Thoughts: No one debut impressed me more last year than Mr Shivers - in Top of the Scots I went so far as to name it the second-best book of 2010 - and though Robert Jackson Bennett seems to be busy shuffling and muttering on his blog about babies and his next novel after this, my attention is quite fixed upon the prospect of The Company Man. I had a word with Robert about this book after its announcement, in fact, which if this new release sounds at all up your street you should totally go ogle.

Meantime, I'll be reading this. And what more could a guy ask?

The Loner

by Quintin Jardine

Vital Statistics

Published in the UK

on 31/03/11

by Headline

Review Priority

3 (We'll See)

The Blurb: Xavi Aislado is a gentle giant, half Spanish, half Scot, brought up in Edinburgh by his grandmother, Paloma Puig, a ferocious old lady whose grim brand of care sees him into his teens, until his father moves back to Spain, leaving him to grow up fast. His emergence into manhood is colourful, and eventful. After a short career as a professional footballer, he turns to journalism, and has a bloody introduction to the trade, as his first assignment ends in violent death. Inevitably, remorselessly, as his autobiography unfolds, Xavi’s life and his love become entwined with his work, and he is immersed in tragedy, loss and betrayal, going halfway round the world in search of a truth that may destroy him.

Quintin Jardine’s evocation of Xavi’s fated world, of the towering being that is Grandma Paloma, and of his love, the beautiful, wilful and hypnotic Grace Starshine, is an unforgettable story of a man riding a one-way train to oblivion. Will he escape, before it hits the buffers, full-speed?

A Scotsman's Thoughts: Is it utterly shameful that before now I didn't realise Quentin Jardine was a Scottish author? Perhaps. Well, very probably. In fact I'd probably have gone on with my head in the clouds had I not spotted the proclamation on the press sheet that The Loner is a standalone thriller. I'd have dismissed this out of hand otherwise, I'm ashamed to say.

As is, I might just give it a wee go; I'm all about rooting for the local talent. Though in fairness I don't know that Quintin Jardine really needs my support.

Fenrir

by M. D. Lachlan

Vital Statistics

Published in the UK

on 21/07/11

by Gollancz

Review Priority

4 (Pretty Bloody Likely)

The Blurb: The Vikings are laying siege to Paris. As the houses on the banks of the Seine burn a debate rages in the Cathedral on the walled island of the city proper. The situation is hopeless. The Vikings want the Count's sister; in return they will spare the rest of the city. Can the Count really have ambitions to be Emperor of the Franks if he doesn't do everything he can to save his people? Can he call himself a man if he doesn't do everything he can to save his sister?

His conscience demands one thing, the demands of state another. The Count and the church are relying on the living saint, the blind and crippled Jehan of St Germain, to enlist the aid of God and resolve the situation for them. But the Vikings have their own gods. And outside their camp a terrifying brother and sister, priests of Odin, have their own agenda. An agenda of darkness and madness.

And in the shadows... a wolfman lurks.

A Scotsman's Thoughts: M. D. Lachlan, on the other hand, will be getting my support whether he likes it or not. Wolfsangel made for dense and often difficult reading, yet its cerebral mad God narrative has remained with me in a way few in truth do, so that I'll read and review Fenrir is pretty much a gimme.

For those of you who overlooked Wolfsangel, as I recall this sequel of sorts skips ahead several hundred years from the events chronicled therein -- so even if you missed Mr Lachlan's estimable first fantasy, there's no reason not to give Fenrir a fair shake. In fact I'd go so far as to recommend you do just that.

Contra Alliance: Shadows of the Past

by Tom Kolega

Vital Statistics

Published in the US

on 09/10/10

by State of the Art

Review Priority

3 (We'll See)

The Blurb: Amid spreading global unrest, a mysterious organization called The Revolution threatens international security. In response, NATO creates a secret strike force to track and destroy the rogue group. Since the mission is counter-revolutionary, the unit’s code name is CONTRA. Exposing The Revolution’s concealed origins, CONTRA uncovers stunning truths about the universe that will plunge the world into great, unknown dread.

Troy McBride - the CIA’s top Special Operations officer - reels from a controversial decommission as an improbable foe emerges, thrusting humanity into peril. Troy journeys from despair to reinstatement—and discovers along the way that his astounding heritage is Earth’s final hope. 

A Scotsman's Thoughts: Don't look so surprised!

No, I'll admit, you don't often see this sort of thing talked up hereabouts, but this is the result of another unsolicited enquiry for possible coverage on the blog -- done right.  From someone who'd done their homework, no less; perhaps even a reader. Who could say? Anyway, it behooves me to do my own double-checking... so. Know that book one of Contra Alliance has nothing at all to do with the old vidja games. Instead, it's the first instalment of "American's newest transmedia franchise," and "a testament to new book publishing models."

All this culled from the website, which I'd invite you to visit if Shadows of the Past looks like it might be your sort of thing. I don't know that it's mine, if I'm honest, but the review copy I have here is certainly beautifully produced and presented. Could be a bit of fun. Who knows?

Songs of the Earth

by Elspeth Cooper

Vital Statistics

Published in the UK

on 16/06/11

by Gollancz

Review Priority

4 (Pretty Bloody Likely)

The Blurb: Gair is under a death sentence. He can hear music - music with power - and in the Holy City that means only one thing: he's a witch, and he's going to be burnt at the stake. Even if he could escape, the Church Knights and their witchfinder would be hot on his heels while his burgeoning power threatesn to tear him apart from within. There is no hope... none, but a secretive order, themselves persecuted almost to destruction. If Gair can escape, if he can master his own growing, dangerous abilities, if he can find the Guardians of the Veil, then maybe he will be safe. Or perhaps he'll discover that his fight has only just begun.

Songs of the Earth is the most compelling debut fantasy novel since Patrick Rothfuss first hit the shelves four years ago, with the stunning The Name of the Wind. Combining superb characterisation with an epic story, it is beautifully told and engaging from the very first word.

A Scotsman's Thoughts: Big words for book one of The Wild Hunt, which if you'd asked me a moment ago I'd have insisted was a fantasy series I'd been sent before. But apparently not!

If I'm honest, I'm more than a little skeptical of Songs of the Earth. There must be something to the ecstatic copy on the cover of the ARC I received, which proclaims a great many things, as above... and I've got good reason to trust in Gollancz - particularly in the editor who brought us The Name of the Wind - thus the thought is I'll give Songs of the Earth a shot, and see for myself. Certainly Wert thought it was alright: derivative but decently done, in the end. So.

Note that I'm saying nothing about that abysmal artwork.

Least, I'm really trying not to...

***

That's it for this week. But never fear: the nearly-new and probably only moderately improved BoSS will be back at the same bat-time next week, in the same bat-place. See you then!

On my plate during the week to come. Well, a bunch of stuff. It hardly bears saying I'll be gobbling up The Company Man immediately. Thereafter, I'm thinking either Fenrir or Songs of the Earth -- though it's a fair while before either's actually out. Perhaps I'll take this opportunity to make a dent in the TBR tower instead...

And what will you be reading, good sirs and sirresses? :)

Playing The Fool

Would you believe me if I said to you, today I killed a man?

No?

Well, it was worth a shot.

How about if I told you the release date of A Dance With Dragons had been brought forward a fortnight?

Yeah. As if.

I'm all swings and roundabouts on April Fool's Day. On the one hand, what a complete and utter waste of time it is. Every single story that breaks you have to take with a grain of salt, and some years, some pretty big news gets buried in all the nonsense.

On the other: fun, games, glee.

Oh how I wish that new Angry Robot Imprint were real...

But scrolling through all the jokes in my RSS reader this morning - the good, the bad and the butt-ugly - I wasn't taken in by a one, and I got to wondering, have we reached boiling point on April Fools' Day pranks? Because I can't for the life of me remember when I was last made a fool of, so much as made to wish it were the 2nd already, what with the widespread silliness.

So do tell: when was the last time an April Fools' Day prank got the better of you?

And please, feel free to wax reminiscent... remind me of the good old days, when the grass was greener and the other side wasn't just a Chillis song. What the best trick you ever fell for? What was the worst?