Faithful Place

Faithful Place (2010) by Tana French. This book starts with a body being found. It turns out to be the body of Rosie, the long-lost love of Detective Francis Mackey, a man who came from the projects and raised himself up. Mackey's single-minded pursuit of the killer leads in unexpected directions. This is an all-around excellent book. Good characters, well drawn, authentic-sounding dialogue, clever plot (though not too complicated). It was a good read from beginning to end, the only difficulty being the Irish vernacular that is spoken by most of the characters. Not only that, the protagonist is male and the book was written by a female, no mean feat. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes hard-hitting fiction with an edge to it. Grade: A