Words

How can we encompass all we are thinking, all we hope for, all we want into a few words? That is, I believe, what New Year’s Resolutions try to do. Impossible, really. But we continue.

I decided, after a friend told me about her practice, that picking a word or words for the year was more possible. The words act as a kind of catalyst, a nudge, a reminder of what you would like to do. Not a RESOLUTION, per se. I like that.

Well, last year my words were: Write and Adventure. I have to say that didn’t really work out. At least not as I pictured the words manifesting.

My writing, except for this blog hit an all-time low. There were reasons, but still. Okay, I did write, but come on.

I had adventure, all right, if you define adventure as totally unexpected, exhausting, one-after-the-other challenges. I described some of them in my December blog. Be careful what you ask for. LOL.

Beach time with the family was wonderful as always, and over too soon. So now, here we go again. Sidebar: Why do we always think the New Year is a time for new things? For starting new things? Like starting a diet on a Monday? It’s just a marker, really. Time is, after all, a continuum. But okay, I’ve established a precedent here, so here goes:

One: Write (Ha! Persevere. Persevere. Persevere.)

Two: Health (As in, concentrate on. Also Persevere.)

So, Happiest of New Years and Best of Luck with your own resolutions… if you make them and/or words… if you choose them.

JANUARY 2016 BOOK SELECTION- THE SECRET PLACE

Since a friend gave me her copy of In the Woods (she doesn’t hold on to books after reading them and I am forever grateful), I became a fan of Tana French. After that, as soon as her books would go into print, The Likeness, Faithful Place and Broken Harbor, I was at the front of the line. Her latest release, The Secret Place does not disappoint. 

My one suggestion is, if this is your first exposure to Tana French’s novels, don’t start here. The books all involve the Dublin Murder Squad but each has a different central character from the squad. In The Secret Place, the main character, Detective Stephen Moran, is a minor one in a previous novel. French uses this technique in all her books, introducing you to some of the characters peripherally and then allowing you to enter the mind of those characters in another novel from the outside in and vice-versa.

The plot focuses on the unsolved death of a teenage boy on the grounds of an elite girl’s school. It’s a year later and the cold case is reopened after Det. Moran receives an unexpected clue. A photograph is posted on a board, “The Secret Place,” at the girl’s school which states, “I know who killed him.”

The action takes place during one day in which the detectives investigate, interview and exhaustively analyze clues. The narrative is skillfully woven with flashbacks of the actual events leading up to the boy’s murder. It gives a glimpse of the minutia of police work and the threading together of information that goes into solving (hopefully) a crime. French’s writing style, even while tackling a disturbing subject is achingly, poetically beautiful.

The handling of the mystical connection of the girls is also stunningly rendered, reminding the reader of those frightening, heady, wonderful and at times grim, teenage years. The length of the novel seems to indicate the author’s reluctance to leave the characters. We too, are left wanting to know what happens in the future for these girls. If French stays true to form, we will meet at least some of them again.

Recommend.