The Secret Place by Tana French

My Rating: 4.5

An unsolved murder of a boy who was found on the grounds of a girls school.  A year later, Holly Mackey arrives in Stephen Moran's office with a photo of the boy with the caption: “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen, along with Detective Antoinette Conway, reopens the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey.

This took me a while to get into - perhaps due to the narration switching to a bunch of immature annoying high school girls. I can say that French captures the high school drama well! Once I understood the alternate story-lines, I got in to it and enjoyed it a lot. I love feeling like I know all these Detectives as French does such an amazing job of building their characters. I am sad that I only have a couple more books left in this series.  Tana, you need to write faster!! :-) 

Funny In Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas

My Rating: 3.8

In 1972, Firoozeh and her family move from Iran to California. She tells various stories from her life in moving to the United States.

For me, this wasn't near as entertaining as "It Ain't So Awful Falafel". I felt like she retold a LOT of the same stories in a slightly different way. I would recommend "It Ain't So Awful Falafel" and skip this.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

My Rating: 2.0

Keiko has always been considered an odd child. Now, nearing 40 years old, she has worked her whole life at a convenience store. She tries desperately to navigate the pressures from the "normal world" to grow up and have a regular job, relationship, etc. but it just isn't for her. Once Keiko understands she is ok with who she is and accepts herself, she is happy.

I felt like there was potential with this novel but, it really missed the mark for me. Murata could have explored Keiko being autistic - she doesn't know appropriate responses or how to read body language and has to take her queue from her peers, Keiko's comfort with routines and patterns - this could have been a more interesting novel. Instead, it was more of a judgment on conforming and learning to accept oneself which I don't consider to be profound. If you have never been to Japan you may find some of the things about convenience store "interesting" at best but I don't think this book is worth your time.

Broken Harbor by Tana French

My Rating: 4.8

A brutal crime scene with Patrick Spain and his two young children murdered and his wife, Jenny, in intensive care. Mick “Scorcherˮ Kennedy is the star of the Dublin Murder Squad who gets assigned this case.

Very few write a good mystery like Tana French.  Between the fabulous Irish accents on the audio version and feeling like you know all the detectives before they show up on the crime scene, she has me hooked.