FAITHFUL PLACE by Tina French (fic)

No one does Irish mysteries like Tina French.  I keep thinking she will run out of ideas, but she keeps turning them out.  If you like her work, you will like this book.  If you have been on a diet
 of non-fiction or deep meaningful books, there is nothing like a good mystery or thriller to keep you turning pages.  This book brings Frank Mackey back, and this time a body found in his old neighborhood of the Liberties, a downtrodden area of Dublin, causes him to rethink his past.  Frank is an undercover detective with the Dublin crimes unit.

French's characters speak in idiomatic Dublin slang; their voices come through clear and lilting with all the rough edges intact.  It has been 20 years since Mackey had been back to the old neighborhood, specifically Faithful Place, the cut-de-sac where he grew up with his four scrappy siblings and tough locals.  He was 19 in 1985 when he fell deeply in love with Rosie Daly, a beautiful feisty neighbor.  They made plans together to escape to England, leaving poverty and feuding families behind. Only that night, Rosie never showed up at their meeting place and Frank never saw her again. Agitated and distressed, Frank leaves his past behind, and the neighborhood where everyone lived   too close and too long together. He never did get to England; instead he bounced around Dublin a bit, joined the force, and worked his way up to being a tough but respected detective.  Along the way, he married and divorced and had a beloved daughter whom he wishes to protect from his manipulative mother and alcoholic and abusive father.

When Rosie's suitcase is found in an abandoned tenement house, Frank returns to work on the case.  I will leave it there as the mystery deepens and we meet neighbors, family, and suspects, along with old feuds which have never died.  I recommend this book to all lovers of well-written and well-plotted mystery novels.