Faithful Place

Undercover cop Frank Mackey's rueful return to the neighborhood and family he fled 20 years before is surely gripping on the page, but hearing French's third suspense novel is unstoppable. Tim Gerard Reynolds delivers local Dublin accents and slang with astonishing skill. He's fluid at making the searing dialogue full of rage and regret yet controls it for maximum impact. The cold case that brings Mackey home entwines the listeners with the emotions of young love and youth, the dreams of escape from dysfunctional families, and the harsh realities of dead-end lives. Reynolds is a talent to watch not just for his language skill, but also for his ability to evoke the author's emotional power. Fans of crime fiction should not miss this audiobook. R.F.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Starred review from May 31, 2010
French's emotionally searing third novel of the Dublin murder squad (after The Likeness) shows the Irish author getting better with each book. In 1985, 19-yearold Frank Mackey and his girlfriend, Rosie Daly, made secret plans to elope to England and start a new life together far away from their families, particularly the hard-drinking Mackeys. But when Rosie doesn't meet Frank the night they're meant to leave and he finds a note, Frank assumes she's left him behind. For 22 years, Frank, who becomes an undercover cop, stays away from Faithful Place, his childhood Dublin neighborhood. When his younger sister, Jackie, calls to tell him that someone found Rosie's suitcase hidden in an abandoned house, Frank reluctantly returns. Now everything he thought he knew is turned upside down: did Rosie really leave that night, or did someone stop her before she could? French, who briefly introduced Mackey in The Likeness, is adept at seamlessly blending suspenseful whodunit elements with Frank's familial demons.