Things I Love Thursdays: Author Tana French

These days, most of my reading consists of young adult and the occasional Stephen King or Neil Gaiman. If it weren't for my mom, I most likely wouldn't have read In the Woods, the debut novel by author Tana French, which earned the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards for best first novel. In the Woods was followed by The Likeness, Faithful Place, and Broken Harbor, all part of a mystery series revolving around a group of detectives on the Dublin murder squad. Each novel is told from the point of view of a different detective who factors into the previous novel in some way.

The appropriately creepy cover of In The Woods.

I'm reading Broken Harbor right now, and it's one of those books that keep you up at night (which is bad only because I'm sleeping terribly these days anyway). My favorite in the series was The Likeness, probably because it had a female protagonist and had a slight paranormal feel to it (even though it's not paranormal at all).

You don't need to be a fan of detective novels to read these books. You just need to like books that are incredibly well written, involve realistic, multi-layered characters, and keep you guessing all the way to the end. And I'm pretty sure that's everyone.