Frank is drawn back to his home by the discovery of a suitcase belonging to a girl named Rosie.  Rosie was Frank’s childhood sweetheart and on the night he left Faithful Place his plan had been to meet Rosie and go with her to London where they were going to get married and build a better life for themselves.  However Rosie never showed and Frank left on his own after finding a note from Rosie that made him think that she had backed out.

Frank is drawn into the mystery of revisiting his past and trying to figure out what really happened to Rosie that night.  He also is drawn back into the drama of his family.  He has two brothers and sisters who welcome him home with mixed reactions as well as an alcoholic father to deal with.  Frank learns how his past and present are not as far removed from each other as he had imagined.

I enjoyed this book and read it fast.  The family dynamics were interesting and I wanted to know what had happened to Rosie.  Frank was actually introduced in The Likeness (Tana French’s second book) and I liked that there was a little connection with her earlier books. I definitely recommend any of her books, however I would start with In the Woods and work my way from there.

The book starts with Mikael, a financial journalist, losing a libel suit in court.  He is trying to figure out what to do with himself as he fears his reputation is now tainted and he knows he has several months in jail ahead of him.  Henrik Vanger is a wealthy retired businessman who hires Mikael at a large salary to spend a year living in the Vanger family compound where his niece, Harriet, went missing many years ago.  Mikael is to write a biography on the family but also to review the disappearance case in one last effort to figure out what happened.  Mikael agrees mainly because Henrik also promises information against the person who Mikael lost the libel suit against.

Mikael ends up being fascinated by the project and by the characters that he meets in the Vanger family.  He ends up hiring Lisbeth, a young woman (with a dragon tattoo) who does thorough research on just about anyone, to assist him and she too becomes very involved in the mystery of what happened to Harriet.  Many people in the Vanger family want the research to stop due to different personal reasons and Mikael begins to be threatened.

This book moved very quickly once I got into it.  The first chapter or two were a little slow, but once I got past that I couldn’t wait to find out what happened.  One of the main themes in this book was violence against women.  I was interested to learn that the original title to this book was Men Who Hate Women.  I liked that Lisbeth was a strong prominent part of this book.   There are two more books in this trilogy and I can’t wait to read what happens next.

This book is about Detective Cassie Maddox.  She had previously worked in the Murder department and before that as an undercover agent but at the start of the book is working domestic violence.  That is why she is surprised to be called to the scene of a murder…and to find out the victim looks just like her and is going by the identity that she had used while working as an undercover agent.

Cassie is convinced to go undercover again and try to solve “Lexie’s” murder from the inside out.  She is put in the home of Lexie’s four best friends (after telling them that she was injured, not murdered) and tries to fit in learning the complexities of those relationships, possible motives, and any outside enemies that could have been responsible.  Or whether it was a case of mistaken identity and someone was really after her.  There was a lot of thought put into this and it also shows the planning and detail that must be kept up when playing the charade of another person’s life.

This book is fast paced and exciting and kept me guessing the whole time.   I only hope that she continues to write more books, and I hope that they continue to feature these same characters that I like so much.