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The Secret Place

Tana French

Ages 16+

Readers rate it 3.8 (143 on Hardcover)

452 pages · Released Sep 2, 2014

Content report card

The Secret Place parent’s guide: what’s inside

High confidence

What it offers

Educational value

A note for parents

The Secret Place is an adult crime thriller centered on a murder investigation at a girls' boarding school, not a young adult novel despite its teenage characters. The story involves graphic descriptions of a crime scene, the psychological manipulation and cruelty within teenage cliques, and mature themes of obsession and betrayal. While not excessively graphic by adult crime fiction standards, the combination of murder, psychological intensity, and the focus on teenage girls in morally ambiguous situations makes this unsuitable for most readers under 16.

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From the publisher

Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of a popular boy whose body was found at a girls’ boarding school a year earlier. The photo had been posted at “The Secret Place,” the school’s anonymous gossip boa... Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of a popular boy whose body was found at a girls’ boarding school a year earlier. The photo had been posted at “The Secret Place,” the school’s anonymous gossip board, and the caption says “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.

Shelved under

  • Detective and mystery stories
  • Investigation
  • Murder
  • Fiction
  • Detectives
  • nyt:hardcover-fiction=2014-09-21
  • New York Times bestseller
  • New York Times reviewed
  • Mystery and detective stories
  • Girls' schools
  • Cliques (Sociology)
  • Fiction, mystery & detective, general

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ISBN 9780670026326 · Viking

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