Faithful Place is a third time reread for me. I picked it up a couple weeks for two reasons. First, events in the life of me had conspired to make me feel excessively picky when it came to book-reading, and it was either read something I loved or don’t read anything at all. Second, French has another novel coming out in late July. It’s another Dublin Murder Squad novel, the protagonist is Scorcher Kennedy, and it’s called Broken Harbor.
The first time I read Faithful Place it was to find out what happened to a girl named Rosie Daly. For plot, in other words, and one of the things I love about French is she sets up developments I didn’t see coming, reveals that blow my mind and make perfect sense. She plays fair.
The second time, it was just to roll around in her beautiful writing style while seeing how she’d directed my attention to and yet not too close to the important stuff.
This time, though the novel was every bit as wonderful, it held no surprises. It was a bit like wearing a beloved and attractive garment that just isn’t new anymore. It was comfortable and satisfying, but a bit of the shine had come off. But it’s got me entirely psyched for Broken Harbor; Scorcher’s a pretty minor character in the previous book, and getting reacquainted with him before embarking on the new book has heightened my excitement.
Tick tick tick, Tana. I love what you do, and a book a year is awesome, but it’s nevertheless hard not to wish you wrote even faster.
And, as usual,
Previously read in 2012
BOOKS
1. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
2. Among Others, by Jo Walton
3. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, by Simon Winchester
4. Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter
5. Kat, Incorrigible (Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson), by Stephanie Burgis
6. Remote, by Donn Cortez
7.The Pattern Scars by Caitlin Sweet
8. one awesome draft novel by a dear friend
9. Property of A Lady, by Sarah Rayne
10. Hark! A Vagrant, by Kate Beaton
11. Black Blade Blues, by J.A. Pitts
Rereads
1. Faithful Place