"The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)" by Tana French

I have read all of French's titles and have always been intrigued by her immersion into the human psyche and it's blurred edges. The past three were good crime stories of the human capability of extreme cruelty and manipulation. Happiness is not handed out like candy but fought for with tooth and claw and sometimes the pot at the end of the rainbow is filled with manure. This latest edition is to me quite frankly a let down. A murder committed at a fancy school for girls is the basis of the story. I won't go into details, you can judge for yourself but all I can say is that not only was a gifted writer on vacation here but I was actually relieved to finish reading this book, like thank goodness that's done, next chore. There are some areas of the book that were beautifully cut out of the air but all in all there were too many moments that seemed to lack that spark that a story needs to make a book sing. At the end of it, the only thing I would want to know more about are the cypress trees in the secret glen.