The Trespasser

August 29, 2016
Det. Antoinette Conway takes center stage in Edgar-winner French’s sharp but shakily paced sixth Dublin Murder Squad novel (after 2014’s The Secret Place). When Aislinn Murray, a young woman just coming into her own, is found in her picture-perfect apartment with the back of her head smashed in, the killer appears to be her new boyfriend, Rory Fallon, who was due to come over for dinner the evening of her murder. But that’s too easy for the suspicious Conway, whose hackles are raised when a more experienced detective takes an interest in the case and wants Rory charged. In several tense interrogation scenes, Rory’s sweat practically drips off the page, and it’s obvious why Conway, the only woman on the squad, is so good at her job. French is less adept than usual, however, in weaving in her main characters’ backstories. The underlying themes of loyalty and how far one should go to protect a person are what makes this entry worthy of French’s prodigious talents, though Conway isn’t her best conduit. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary, TV & Film Agency.

August 1, 2016
A sheltered young woman comes out of her cocoonand her transformation ends with murder.In the sixth Dublin Murder Squad novel, the unfolding of a murder case is seen through the eyes of Detective Antoinette Conway, a character we got to know first through her now-partner, Steve Moran, in The Secret Place (2014). But while her mysteriously hard-to-crack exterior was compelling from Moran's perspective, her internal monologue proves less so. Here, she comes across as much younger and less in control. And Moran and his goofy smile are just along for the ride as Conway heads up an investigation of the murder of 26-year-old Aislinn Murray, found dead in her meticulous home from a punch to the face and a smack on the fireplace hearth. It starts off looking like a regular lovers' tiff when the victim's texts reveal she had a date scheduled for that night with Rory Fallon, a smitten, daydreaming kind of guy. Conway thinks he should be easy to crack, but he swears it was someone elseAislinn had a way about her that really made men obsessed. But she wasn't always that way, as her friend Lucy reveals. Her transformation into a heartbreaker was new, and it had purpose. As the two detectives start looking at other options"Lover Boy is changing, in my mind"the investigation is impeded by their own murder squad. But why? It's not just because the guys think Conway has a stick up you know where. Respect is owed to French for making her interrogation scenes good enough to really spike your blood pressure, but the magic of previous installments is missing.

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Starred review from December 5, 2016
In the sixth entry of French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, Detectives Steve Moran and Antoinette Conway investigate the death of a young woman fatally battered in her apartment. Whereas 2014’s The Secret Place was told from Steve’s perspective, the events this time around are described by Antoinette. Both the procedural progress and the narrative attitude seem edgier, faster paced, and fueled by more tension. But the warts-and-all portrait of Antoinette is at the heart of the novel, and reader Fay’s ability to mix the natural lyric quality of her Irish brogue with Antoinette’s working class, chip-on-shoulder hostility makes for a fully sustained, award-worthy performance. A Viking hardcover.

August 1, 2016

Antoinette Conway, who played a supporting role in French's previous Dublin Murder Squad novel, The Secret Place, moves into the limelight here. She and that book's protagonist, Stephen Moran, are partnered and working well together, but they're consistently assigned the worst cases, and she's having trouble with the rest of the squad (crucial pages somehow go missing from her reports or her cell phone is dropped in coffee when she steps away from her desk), and she's considering taking a friend's offer of a cushy job traveling the world guarding Saudi princesses. When Conway realizes she'd previously met the victim of an apparently straightforward domestic murder, the case zigs and zags in unexpected and dangerous directions with local gangs, possibly corrupt cops, and a mild-mannered bookstore owner all playing a part. French's interconnected first-person novels easily stand alone, but consuming them in order gives readers the pleasure of seeing characters they've come to know through others' eyes. VERDICT Expect high demand driven by fans of the author and readers who crave tightly plotted, character-driven crime fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/16; academic & library marketing.]--Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2016

Det. Antoinette Conway is thrilled to be on the murder squad, not so thrilled by the harassment, and really puzzled why the other detectives are pushing her and partner Stephen Moran to rush in and charge the boyfriend of impeccable blonde Aislinn Murray with her murder. A new look at the New York Times best-selling author's tough-guy Dublin Murder Squad.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.