The Trespasser

Dublin Murder Squad: 6. The gripping Richard & Judy Book Club 2017 thriller

By: Tana French

Narrated by: Hilda Fay

Antoinette Conway, the tough, abrasive detective from The Secret Place, is still on the Murder squad, but only just. She's partnered up with Stephen Moran now, and that's going well - but the rest of her working life isn't. Antoinette doesn't play well with others, and there's a vicious running campaign in the squad to get rid of her. She and Stephen pull a case that at first looks like a slam-dunk lovers' tiff, but gradually they realise there's more going on: someone on their own squad is trying to push them towards the obvious solution, away from nagging questions. They have to work out whether this is just an escalation in the drive to get rid of her - or whether there's something deeper and darker going on.

(P) 2016 Penguin Random House LLC©2016 Tana French

Critic reviews

First-rate . . . her procedural thoroughness takes her deeper and deeper into a wholly convincing portrayal of Dublin police. (David Hare)

Best Crime Title of the Year

French's gripping sixth novel checks every box from prose to plotting to suspense to characterisation. I'm working my way through the Dublin Murder Squad series and they're stellar.

Perfect winter reading. Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series are up there with the most read on our 50 book challenge discussions. This is no surprise since her books offer readers compelling, intelligent thrillers with brilliant characters - including the tough and foul-mouthed detective, Antoinette Conway, the narrator of this twisty and thrilling story.

This is crime writing at its most sublime: spell-binding story-telling with a heroine to treasure in Detective Antoinette Conway . . . Author Tana French's reputation has been growing steadily in recent years and she is now at her peak, as this superb novel underlines.

A clever and well-crafted read.

Tana French's thrillers are consistently good - well-plotted, intelligent, with memorable characters - and her latest, THE TRESPASSER, does not disappoint.

Thrillers are a dime a dozen. The trick is to find something that actually sticks to the ribs. This fall will bring a new release from one of the best crime writers working today, Tana French. But that book, The Trespasser, is actually her sixth. She has five novels you can buy right now, though you should read them in the order in which they were published, starting with In the Woods. I can do you no greater favour in life than recommending that you read her books.

A gnarly, absorbing read, and a finely tuned slice of wintry gloom from one the best thriller writers we have.

The Trespasser contains the most tense and serpentine interrogation scenes outside of John Le Carré . . . Shows French to be a one-off phenomenon. (Mark Lawson)

French and The Trespasser merit all the praise we can heap on them. If 2016 has a better crime thriller to offer, I've not yet read it.

Its single voice is brilliantly sustained . . . and the book is a clever and intriguing experiment - the default technique of the psychological thriller, first-person female narration, deployed instead in a procedural whodunit.

A beautifully wrought murder mystery and investigation into what it means to be a murder detective.

Another gripping tale, beautifully told, by a woman at the top of her game.

Taut, twisty, packed with all-too believable characters and rattles along at breakneck speed.

The narrator this time is the wonderfully foul-mouthed, bad-tempered detective Antoinette Conway. And her narrative voice proves to be just as entertaining as I'd hoped, with a wonderfully salty and sometimes cruel sense of humour . . . At last it looks like a police procedural series from this side of the Atlantic can rival the best of the Americans.

Peerless

Tana French is in a class of her own. Her characters are fully fleshed out individuals with flaws and fears that avoid the usual police procedural/detective cliches yet also serve to make them highly relatable. Throughout the Murder Squad series, French effortlessly conveys the rich interior lives of her main protagonists and this offering is no exception. Her use of language creates a rhythm that plays out with both beauty and tension. A true literary crime thriller. Superb.

Great story - Great narration

What made the experience of listening to The Trespasser the most enjoyable?

The story is riveting, and the characters are engaging. I thought the narration by Hilda Fay was superb - her voice really suited the story.

LOVED this book!

I've enjoyed all Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad books, although I'm not usually a crime fiction fan. She has a knack for human portraits and a gift for seeing the intricacies of relationships which elevate the book far above the average "who dunnit". Her plots are full of interesting twists and I love the way she brings back minor characters from previous books to flesh them out in more detail. Can't wait for her next book.
As with all the books I've heard in this series, the performance is outstanding and I'd certainly seek out other narrations by Hilda Fay.

Depth, immersion, story, incredible

The depth of penetration into the human insecurities, the level of exposure of human cognition, and inner struggles, the masterful storytelling, topped with a heart wrenching finish is simply too much to describe in a ‘review’. 10 stars out of 5.

A personal disclosure.

The amazingly gifted Tana French draws you into a fantasy world, and since that is what the book is about, in a way it is a (very) partial autobiography. I am mesmerised.