I have been WAITING for this book. I was hoping that Tana French would, at some point in this series, address

Spoiler

bent cops and police brutality

. She didn't disappoint. I'll admit, I struggled to get started with this one, much more than any of the others. Conway is a difficult character for me, and I honestly wasn't all that anxious to hear more about this murder when it was initially laid out. But of course, there's always that hook. It's so deftly done that I can never quite pinpoint when it happened or what it even was, and this adds all the more to its brilliance.

I flip-flopped for the entirety of the book on my opinion of Conway and her actions, her attitudes, and her beliefs. I'm sure this was French's intention. As the (presumably) sole woman on the squad, she receives abuse from the rest of her colleagues, and as someone who was already thick-skinned and blunt, she puts up all her defenses. Conway is, let's face it, mean. She's brash and at times arrogant, harsh and often unnecessarily cruel. But is it without reason? The reader is meant to question this, I think, and a less savvy reader might simply peg Conway as the defensive feminist and move on. But hopefully, French's treatment of the character and her reasoning comes through. All in all, this one wound up being just as amazing as all the others and I hope we're getting a new one soon.