Faithful Place: A Novel

Written by Tana French

Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds

From Tana French—author of The Witch Elm and “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post)—the bestseller called “the most stunning of her books” (The New York Times) and a finalist for the Edgar Award. 

Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was a nineteen-year-old kid with a dream of escaping his familyʼs cramped flat on Faithful Place and running away to London with his girl, Rosie Daly. But on the night they were supposed to leave, Rosie didnʼt show. Frank took it for granted that sheʼd dumped him—probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again. Neither did Rosie. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosieʼs suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank, now a detective in the Dublin Undercover Squad, is going home whether he likes it or not.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Feb 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9780525635338

Tana French

Tana French grew up in Ireland, Italy, the United States and Malawi. She is the author of In the Woods (winner of the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and Barry awards for Best First Novel), The Likeness, Faithful Place, Broken Harbour (winner of the LA Times prize for Best Mystery/Thriller) and The Secret Place. She lives in Dublin with her husband and two children. She keeps a website at www.tanafrench.com

Reviews for Faithful Place

[gwendydd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like the other books in this series, this is about a detective who is investigating a murder that is way too close to his personal life. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the others: the main character, Frank, isn't particularly likeable, and although the mystery is interesting and engaging, it's not as unusual or clever as the previous books. Nonetheless, French is an outstanding writer and this is an enjoyable mystery.

[olegalca · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Tana French is an amazing storyteller. The mystery wasn't that great but you hardly minded because of everything else.

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the third Dublin Murder Squad book, and it absolutely lives up to the books before it. French's writing is gorgeous, and the characters brought to life here feel as real as if they were living their stories next door rather than in the pages of a book. With family at the forefront in a different fashion than in the last two books, this one sometimes feels more like a drama than a thriller, but as everything builds together and moves toward the finale, every moment of every page proves itself to have counted. I will say that I found this one a touch more predictable than the last two, but I still loved every page and can't wait to read the next installment in the series.

[rickgeissal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an unusually good mystery that is more about family than murder. As usual with Tana French, it is very well-written.

[beentsy_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent story. Gut wrenching family agonies abound all wrapped up with a mystery.

Tana French's writing is just gorgeous.

[sleahey_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Both a murder mystery and portrait of a troubled family, this novel describes the effect the disappearance of his girlfriend Rosie had on Frank, even 20 years later. She never showed up at the rendez-vous when they planned to run off to England together, and Frank always assumed that she ditched him. Fast forward (or not so fast) to Frank's adulthood, estranged from his complicated family, and Frank is a police officer and divorced father of a little girl who is the apple of his eye. When Rosie's suitcase is discovered he returns to his old neighborhood and family to try tp discover what really happened two decades earlier. Frank has some pretty unlikeable traits, but nothing compared to some of his family members, and we can be glad that we don't have this family to go home to.

[ffortsa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm so glad I discovered this series. French writes of real people, and real pain. Frank is drawn back to his family, from whom he is long estranged, to solve a murder with profound repercussions for him and his family. A great read, although I guessed the killer early on. The way French works it out is masterful.

[rosalita_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tana French has crafted a most unusual series: Each succeeding book focuses on a character who was at most a peripheral player in the previous one. Here, in the third entry in the Dublin Murder Squad series, we are paired with Frank Mackey, who was the boss of Cassie Maddox, the heroine of Book 2, The Likeness, who was herself a secondary character in the first book, In the Woods. It shouldn't work to keep shifting focus with each book, but it does.

Faithful Place is the street where Frank Mackey grew up, in an aggressively working class Dublin family. He planned to elope with a neighbor girl, but their plans went awry when Rosie never showed up at the rendezvous. All these years later, he's still wounded by her apparent abandonment. When it begins to become clear that Rosie may not have dumped him willingly after all, Frank is reluctantly drawn back in to contact with the dysfunctional family he left behind on that long-ago night. As he investigates what happened to Rosie, he has to come to terms with the idea that the answer lies within the Mackey clan.

I love how French never succumbs to genre stereotypes as she crafts these mysteries, and how vividly alive her characters seem. Each seems distinct and yet familiar at the same time, as if these are people we have met or at least heard about from a friend. I was kept guessing and caring deeply about Frank and the rest of the cast right to the end.

[bereanna · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I finished this, but read over quickly the deep Irish brogue that I didn’t understand through much of the book. Only finished to find out how it was resolved.
Undercover cop must go home where he hasn’t been for 22 years to his disfunctional family. He discovers his sweetheart’s body as well as who killed his brother.

[bdartnall_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent characterization as the story unfolds - a young Irish woman left her working class Dublin neighborhood to find a new life in England - never to be seen or heard from again. Until her body is discovered in the basement of one of the long abandoned tenement buildings. And the detective who is contacted happens to be her long ago first love - he and the girl were going to leave home together, start a new life in England. Riveting & unfolds gradually.

[reading_fox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Third of the series and protagonist is now the undercover boss Frank. He's got some history in his family, and tries not to go home too often. But when he finds his estranged wife has been taking his daughter to visit her grandparents he has no option but join in too. During such a visit a body is discovered - though to be his childhood sweetheart whom he'd long believed had abandoned him and escaped all touches of the law.

He is of course among the suspect list, but knowing himself to be innocent proceeds to investigate avenues the murder squad police could never reach, using both his skills as undercover agent, and his familial connections. Like all of Tara's books it's not always easy reading heavy of the psychology and avoiding too much technical detail. Art least the overt supernatural elements aren't featuring this time, and all the actors rationally down to earth with their own motivations and justifications. It doesn't cast Frank in any better life than he began, but perhaps unlike the previous two installments, he may continue having a career in the police.

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I didn't care all that much about how the mystery played out, it was a little bit 'meh'. But the relationship dynamics held my attention, and the portrayal of different sorts of people was very buyable. So overall I quite enjoyed it.

[katiekrug · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a great read - a compelling main character, fully developed secondary characters, a strong sense of place, and questions of family, loyalty, and justice. Frank Mackey thinks he's left behind his working class roots and dysfunctional family; he's not been home for over 20 years and maintains only a tenuous connection with one of his sisters. But he's pulled home for a cold case involving his old girlfriend who stood him up 22 years ago on the verge of their departure together for England.

There's a lot going on in the book, and I loved how French managed to weave all the strings together and to draw parallels and connections between Frank then and now. The scenes with Frank and his daughter are so well done, and his inner turmoil about how to be a good father when he had no example is heartbreaking in many ways. This is a pretty dark book in its take on one's ability to move beyond one's past only so far. And how as much as we'd like to leave certain things behind, it's impossible because they helped to form us and so stay with us, woven into our very beings.

[indygo88 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Frank Mackey, undercover detective in the Dublin Murder Squad, is the main character in this, the 3rd installment in Tana French's series. When Frank was a young 19-year-old, he and then-girlfriend Rosie planned to sneak away together to London. However, Rosie never showed up to their designated meeting place, and based on the note found nearby, he assumed she left for London without him. Itching to get away from his dysfunctional family, he fled as well, with a "good riddance" to his family. Now, many years later, Rosie's suitcase is found in their old stomping ground, and questions emerge. Did Rosie really run away to London, or did something more sinister occur?

Unlike the first two books of the series, this one explored the family dynamics of its main character, and boy did Frank have a messed up family. If I were him, I would've gotten the heck out of there as soon as possible too. Like the previous two books, this was a good story as well, though I missed the fact that there were no references to any of the characters from the previous books. I like that French picks a side character from one book to expand on in a subsequent book, but I also like when there are subtle ties to previous story lines, and there weren't really any in this one. But still, a good story and good mystery. I'm getting sucked into this series, so I suspect book #4 will be coming up quick in my reading queue.

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Read this one shortly after [In the Woods], meant that the formula felt a little more predictable. Still very well written and engaging, just less thrilling.

[icolford · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In her first novel, In the Woods, Tana French proved that she is adept at exploiting a character’s past to chilling effect. She does this again in her third novel, Faithful Place, in which Dublin undercover detective Frank Mackey finds himself immersed in a past he thought he’d successfully escaped. Back in 1985 Frank was nineteen. On a cold winter night, he and his girlfriend, Rosie Daly, were ready to abscond together, leave behind their homes and families on Faithful Place, in The Liberties, a rough-hewn working-class section of Dublin, and travel to England, find good jobs and make a new life for themselves. When Rosie failed to show up for the midnight rendezvous, Frank assumed she had come to her senses: decided she wanted nothing to do with him and his family’s reputation for riotous conflict, alcohol abuse and dysfunction and set out on the journey alone. Broken-hearted but determined, Frank, following Rosie’s lead, did not return home after that night, and for the next twenty-two years, as he rose through the ranks with the Dublin police, the vision of Rosie succeeding and thriving in London was for him a consolation and a torment. Skip forward to the present. Rosie’s suitcase has been discovered stashed behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place and suddenly Frank is back on the street where he grew up, being drawn into the toxic family environment he left behind all those years ago. The police launch an investigation, with Frank’s old friend Scorcher in charge and insisting that Frank keep his nose out of it. But Frank Mackey, a cocky, moody, street-smart, impulsive wise ass, is not about to do that and instead plunges forward with a parallel investigation that sinks him deep into his murky, painful family history, reviving demons he would much prefer to have left slumbering. French’s novel sends Frank down a dangerous rabbit hole where he reconnects with siblings and childhood friends and finds answers to questions he never thought to ask. In the process he unearths a seething warren of unwelcome truths and comes face to face with the worst his family has to offer. The story is gripping and fast-paced, the writing vivid and richly cinematic, and the dialogue authentic and witty. In Faithful Place, Tana French has written another edge-of-the-seat thriller that offers an abundance of twists and turns that the reader never sees coming.

[nancyina2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book disappointed me. It has some lovely writing, but also some of the most disagreeable people I have read about. If this had been the first Tana French novel I read, I’m not sure I would have read a second.

[purple_pisces22 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As always, quick paced and lots of surprises.

[drapple_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An Irish detective is pulled back into his past when a mystery from his youth is solved.

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very different story from the previous one, which I like better. Murder- mystery in a cop's home town where his family still lives but he hasn't been back in 20 years. Lots of skeletons in the closet. Interesting implications on the role of families, children, parents, responsibility, community, saving face, and first love.

[juju2cat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another good book in the series but I was seriously depressed after I finished. There were no winners out of this messed up family.

[al9g · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I saw a couple of reviews of this author (though not this particular book) and decided I had to read one of hersbecause they were both so glowing. I picked this one because it was available as an e-loan so I could read it right away. I have to say her characters are amazing as well as her dialogue. She conveys the Irish accent very well with her dialogue, especially since she is American. Her writing is intense and this is a psychological thriller that keeps the reader on the edge throughout. The plot is original and very imaginative. The only critique I have is that I was able to solve the mystery about half way through. Still, the book is well written enough to keep you enthralled even if you know whodunit. I will have to read more of her work.

[carriewuj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great angle on murder/mystery with tough-talking, poetic-thinking undercover cop Francis Mackie. The Irish brogue just drips off the pages and the description of Ireland circa 1980 is spot on. Mackie's charm, blue eyes and gift of gab are useful in helping him get information, but this case hits close to home. His estranged family reaches out to him when the suitcase of his first love is found -- bringing back memories and recrimination. Frank has believed for 20 some years that she ran off without him and never looked back. Now he must come to terms with an alternate explanation. The ultimate solution is a little predictable, but lots of twists and turns along the way, along with a big helping of dark Irish. Felt a little shell-shocked when I finished this one.

[AbigailAbigail · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Too slow for my taste. From the first pages, the outcome is hinted at. (Translated from Spanish)

[shannonrose4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

my favorite of the author's books.

[nancyjean19 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was the perfect choice to bring on my trip to Asia, which included two 12-hour flights. I read this book for probably 6 or 7 hours altogether on the trip, and it was absorbing the whole time. I've enjoyed all three of French's books I've read so far, but I think this was the slickest so far. A tight plot, interesting characters, and her characteristic interiority drove the story forward and kept me deep in the world of Faithful Place.

[christopherswann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tana French knows how to create full-on characters, the kind that sit with you for a while, especially her narrators. This novel is no exception. Solid writing, gripping story, and crackling dialogue. (The Irish slang is especially fun to read.) While it's a mystery, it's also a story about family and secrets and pasts, and how corrosive they can be, especially when put all together. Another outstanding novel from the author of In the Woods and The Likeness.

[breic-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

More of the same.

[jbd1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Getting a little worried at this point that I'm just going to chain-read all of Tana French's books. I'm going to have to hide them, or something, to keep some in reserve for when I need a really good read. This is yet another absolute cracker of a read, with Frank Mackey, known to readers from The Likeness, taking center stage.

[thesmellofbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thoughtful, sorrowful, beautifully constructed.