Literacy Criticism

In the article “The Domestic Terrorism of Tana French,” the author writes that Tana French’s novels are more than just murder mysteries. The author argues that French explores the psychological damage present in modern Ireland and how that damage affects the characters in her novels. The article discusses how French uses unreliable narrators, such as detectives, to show how their personal involvement affects how they view others and how it can blind them from seeing the truth. Additionally, the author points out how the setting of the novels plays a huge role in French’s work. The author explains that French turns normal, everyday places, like neighborhoods and schools, into places of fear and danger for the characters in her novels. The author then begins to talk about the danger in French’s books, and how it usually comes from people that the characters know and trust instead of strangers. The article compares French’s work to other traditional crime fiction books. The author explains how French focuses more on the complex characters, and how they grow throughout the book. While the author does criticize French for having some narrative imbalances, such as in The Secret Place, the article mainly portrays French as a powerful and effective writer. 

In the article “Tana French’s Intimate Crime Fiction,” The author, Laura Miller, explains that what makes French stand out is the personal feeling that she includes within her novels. The article describes French’s writing as consuming, giving the readers a deep understanding of the minds of her characters. One of the most memorable examples that Miller discusses is the “ghost estate” in Broken Harbor, which is also an example of how French connects setting to character identity. Miller argues that in French’s novels the detective’s search for the killer often ends up becoming a search for the detective's own identity along the way. The article also emphasizes that the novels are based more on character instead of focusing mainly on the plot. Each book is told with its own separate voice, and French switches between first-person and third-person narration to give the reader a better understanding of each detective's perspective. Miller also points out that the detectives do investigate crimes, but they are really seeking after mysteries that can never be solved completely. The article highlights that French’s work is separate from traditional crime fiction because she leaves uncertainty instead of tying up the novel nicely. Overall, the author presents French as a writer who uses crime fiction to explore mystery, setting, and identity on a deeper level.

In the article “Closeness and Cruelty: On Tana French’s The Searcher,” the author argues that Tana French’s novel The Searcher explores how the setting, community, identity, and violence are tied together in the story along with the mystery itself. The article begins by explaining how the novel setting is moved into a rural Irish setting instead of French’s usual urban setting. The author believes French uses this new setting to show how Cal, the main character and also a cop, becomes entangled in the new society which he is an outsider in. The article explores French’s different elements of classic noir, the police procedural, and rural noir fiction that are used in this specific novel. The author uses the unpredictable nature of the community to highlight the struggles that Cal faces in his new scenery, like with the rooks in his yard and the townspeople. The article emphasizes that Cal’s search for the missing teenager leads him to questioning himself and his morals. In conclusion, the author depicts The Searcher as a book that uses closeness and cruelty to show its emotional toll and the impact of crime fiction on readers.

In the article “Crime on the Periphery: Tana French’s Criminal Geography,” the author analyzes the locations in Tana French’s novels and how they help readers understand the meaning behind her crime fiction. The article explains how setting plays a huge role in French’s novels and how she often picks unsettling locations, such as spaces in the woods and abandoned houses. The author argues that these "peripheral" areas are important to help the reader understand each character and their emotions. The author points out that as the setting begins to fall apart, so do the characters and their morality. Specifically in In the Woods, the setting makes it difficult to separate the past from the present which makes it hard for the detective to search for the truth. The article suggests that the detectives' mindsets are not stable and them not being able to understand their surroundings relates with their struggle to solve the mystery. To summarize, the article describes Tana French as a writer who uses the setting in her novels to explain the ideas about the characters memory, identity, and uncertainty of their surroundings, proving that crime fiction can be more than just solving the case.