The Trespasser by Tana French
Published: October 4th 2016 by Viking
Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Crime
Pages: 449

This is the 6th book in the Dublin Murder Squad series. If you’re not familiar with the series it follows one Murder Squad, but not the same characters. In each book you are introduced to the character to be featured in the next book and you get to revisit some characters along the way. This way you get the sense of the world they live in, without following one main character through the books.

While the books also have good and interesting plots, like the usual crime book. It is also a lot about the detectives and their character development and the squad as a whole. This is becoming more and more clear as the books go on.

Tana French also writes with a kind of passion that makes you carefully read all the words not to miss a single beat. Her books are never shallow and never boring.

“Every Murder D I’ve  known does it: takes one long look at the victim’s face. It doesn’t make sense, not to civilians. If we just wanted a mental image of the vic, to keep us reminded who we’re working for, any phone selfie would do a better job. If we needed a shout of outrage to get our hearts pumping, the wounds do that better than the face.”

What baffles me is how Ms French moves from male to female narrators and has me convinced in every sentence of which part she plays. She also has me convinced that she’s a retired detective with inside knowledge of everything police and crime related.

“The vic’s home is your shot at getting a handle on this person you’re never going to meet.”

I am always right there with her, through every scene. Where in other books I might lose interest when I see the plot laid out before me, but not with the Dublin Murder Squad! Even after I know who the killer is, I’m still right there savoring every single word of their confession. Which can drag out sometimes, but it’s still good. It’s always just consistently good!

Some thrillers you can’t wait to finish, fast flipping pages looking for the answer. And while The Dublin Murder Squad holds excitement, it’s not my main purpose for being there. I’ve grown fond of all the perfectly flawed and absolutely beautifully human characters. I’m convinced she bases her characters on real people, there’s just no way you can create characters so real and flawed from nothing.

“The stuff people think I should try to hide – being tall, being a woman, being half whatever – is the stuff I keep up front and in their faces. If they can’t handle it, I can use that.”