BOOKS: Faithful Place, Tana French (2010)

Third in French's series of loosely linked novels about the Dublin police. (My comments on the first two: In the Woods and The Likeness.)

In 1985, Frank Mackey and Rosie Daly were 19, and couldn't wait to get away from Faithful Place, a dismal run-down little street in Dublin whose residents barely cling to working-class status; they'd arranged to meet and run away to London together. Rosie never showed up. A broken heart didn't stop Frank from running himself, though. He never got as far as London, but he did become a successful member of the undercover unit of the Dublin police.

Now, 22 years have passed, and Frank hasn't been back to the Place since; he's had only occasional contact with one of his sisters, and hasn't seen the rest of the family. But when Rosie's suitcase is found hidden in the abandoned building where she and Frank were supposed to meet all those years ago, he finds himself sucked back into the neighborhood and into the spectacular dysfunction of his family.

What's interesting about this book is that it really isn't primarily a crime novel. Yes, the mystery of what happened to Rosie is what propels the action forward, and we do get a well-plotted and satisfying answer to that mystery, but all of that plays out nearly in the background. The real drama here is the story of the Mackey family -- the long-buried resentments, the sibling rivalries and jealousies, the toxic mix of love and hate that comes from living with abusive parents.

As always, French delivers intensely vivid characterizations. The complicated relationships among Frank's family are precisely drawn, and we understand precisely the distinctive nature of the relationship between each pair of siblings, or between each child and the Mackey parents. Even relatively minor characters -- Rosie, who is seen only in brief flashbacks, or Frank's ex-wife -- are so richly detailed that they feel more alive than some novelists' protagonists.

A recurring theme in French's novels is how strongly we are shaped by, and how damned hard it can be to escape from, our past. Frank's struggle to break free of his family's cycle is often painful to watch, never more so than when he realizes that his young daughter may already be more of a Mackey than he'd have hoped.

Three novels from Tana French, three spectacular successes. She's the real thing, folks, and if you haven't been reading her all along, you should. Each novel stands perfectly well on its own, but since the protagonist of each is a minor character in the preceding volumes, I'd recommend starting at the beginning. (If French continues that pattern, it'll be interesting to see which character from Faithful Place takes center stage in the next book; I'm sort of hoping it'll be the ambitious young detective Stephen Moran.) Go. Read the book already.