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In The Woods

This is first book in Tana's Dublin Murder Squad series — and it also happens to be her first book she ever published! The story takes place in the summer of 1984 in a small-town suburb of Dublin, Ireland. One night, three children don't come home from playing with their friends. The only thing the police find? A small boy terrified, covered in blood, and unable to remember any of the events that occurred that night.

20 years later, that same petrified boy is now a Dublin detective — Detective Rob — and trying desperately to forget his past (the parts he does remember). Rob is forced to address his past when a young girl is found the exact way he was 20 years ago. Now, he has no choice but to confront what happened...and potentially the killer.

The Likeness

In this Dublin Murder Squad sequel, we revisit Cassie Maddox from book 1, who is forced to go back to her old town because of a — you guessed it — murder. She has to go to a crime scene and help solve the case of a girl who was killed wearing an ID of Cassie's old alias. The story keeps getting stranger and stranger for Cassie as she doesn't know who this woman was, or who killed her.

Faithful Place

Book three in this series follows Frank Mackey, who in 1985 was planning on running away with his girlfriend...only for her to mysteriously never show up. Frank decided it was probably because she didn't want to be with him anymore. Taking her absence as an answer, he left — but little did he know that Rosie never went home either. Years later, her suitcase shows up at Frank's door, and he's forced to go home to discover what happened to her, once and for all.

Broken Harbour

In the fourth installment of this series, we meet Mick — a type A, rule-follower detective on the Dublin Murder Squad. However, when a new murder throws him for a loop, all bets are off. A family in a rich, new development gets murdered mysteriously, and the wife is the only surviving victim. While she's in intensive care, Mick has to figure out why there are dubious and strange factors in the house — like 12 baby monitors focused on holes in the walls, or files being wiped on the family's computer. It's a suspicious case, and what makes it harder is that it's in the neighborhood where Mick, himself, has history. Keep reading to see how this interesting mystery gets solved...or doesn't.

The Secret Place

The fifth book of the Dublin Murder series follows Stephen, a young detective wanting to have his shot at joining the Murder Squad. When Detective Frank Mackey's daughter, Holly, comes into the station with crucial evidence, Stephen realizes this is a crime that he just might be able to solve. Suddenly, Stephen, Frank, and Holly team up to figure out how his Holly's friend group might be up to no good.

The Trespasser

In French's most recent Dublin Murder Squad book, she tells us the story of Young Detective Antoinette, who isn't sure if she belongs in the murder squad. She's trying to make her way through cases, but feels out of place...that is, until a woman's body shows up, and it could be a potential lovers quarrel-gone-wrong!

Everyone's telling Antoinette that it was the boyfriend, but she can't help but think there's more to the story than meets the eye. The woman's friends say she was in danger, and there seems to be a lurking presence in the town that Antoinette can't get away from. Soon, she won't be able to tell the difference from the girl's killer or Antoinette's own stalker.

The Witch Elm

In this new standalone story by Tana French, Toby is out with his friends one night when he's viciously attacked by burglars. The injuries leave him needing care and seeking refuge in the home of his dying uncle, who needs care of his own. The two are able to help each other, until Toby finds a skull in the trunk of the elm tree out back. Detectives start to uncover pieces in this mystery, as Toby comes to terms with the fact that his past isn't what he thought it was...

The Searcher

This book has over 139,000 reviews on Goodreads, so you know it's actually a good read. This book the first of a murder mystery series about Cal Hooper, a retired former detective who buys a rustic house in a small, Irish village after his divorce. Cal thinks he's going to get a new life, to start over and find some peace. But when a young boy recruits him to help find his missing brother, Cal uncovers secrets to this town and it might not be as peaceful as he once thought. Will he get himself — and the young boy — into trouble? Or be able to save the day and his new town? Read to find out!

The Hunter

In part two of Tana's newest series, Cal has finally built a life for himself. He has a girlfriend, a home he's working on, and a young teenager, Trey, that he's trying to help. But when Trey's absent father comes back into the picture, wreaking havoc and mystery, Cal and his girlfriend are trying to do all they can to protect the young girl. However, Trey's dad brought in a millionaire with a mission to find gold in the town, making their efforts much more difficult. Will they be able to protect Trey from her father, or is it too late?

You'll be dying to find out how Tana's most recent novel ends! Don't believe me? Everyone from the Associated Press to The Washington Post has rave reviews for this sequel!

​5. Diver Down

Let’s be honest, one of the things fans were most excited to see now that JJ and Kiara are together is JJ’s protectiveness over Kiara. We’ve seen it plenty of times in the past, but things are a little different now that he’s her boyfriend, and it’s in full force when they’re attacked underwater and Kiara loses the scuba diving gear providing her oxygen.

From JJ stabbing the guy with a spear gun to him banging on the door of the ship, desperate to get back to Kiara and screaming her name, this sequence delivers. Then, of course, there’s the fact that he immediately gives her his air so she can breathe.

​4. An Undercover Date

When trying to track down the man who attacked them, JJ says their plan is to “detain, extract, investigate,” and sneak up on him as spies would. Kiara likes it, declaring they’re undercover before suggesting they act like they’re on a date – if he knows what that looks like. JJ questions her and she mentions they’ve never been on a date before, challenging him to name just one. He then tells her that they're on a date right now, grabbing her hand so they can do date things together on the pier. What does that include? Snow cones and a dare to jump into the water.

​3. “Us Against The Universe.”

Since they didn’t make their diving safety stop as Pope instructed them to, Kiara and JJ get the bends (bubbles in their blood and tissues), and the Pogues rush them to the hospital, where they have to spend 12 hours in a hyperbaric chamber. With 12 whole hours together, you can imagine where this going. But before that, since this is their first moment to reflect on what happened, JJ comments how she almost died, and says that he never should’ve let her go down there. Naturally, Kiara has a different way of looking at it, saying if she wasn’t there, the attacker would’ve gotten JJ instead.

Moral of the story? They save each other and it’s them against the universe. JJ also makes a cute call back to when he called her a Kook, and we love some good banter.

​2. The Turtle Hatch

Kiara’s pure joy at the sight of a turtle hatch on the beach is a beautiful moment for the character, who's talked about saving the turtles since season 1. However, Ruthie and Topper have other plans for this precious moment and decide to drive their truck directly at the Pogues, who are trying to safely get the turtles to the ocean. Kiara notices and goes in front of the truck, trying to tell them that there’s a hatch and to go around, but they ignore her, running over the area not once but twice.

Why this is so high on my list is because of the way JJ stands by her side as she confronts the Kooks for killing a baby turtle. He lets her take charge and say what she needs to, only getting involved when Topper puts his hand on her. JJ's taken the lead in these conversations in the past, and to see the roles reverse like this just proves why they work so well together. Plus, there’s the whole “You come near her, or any of us ever again, and I’ll come back and kill every single one of you.”

“He’s Happy.”

The Moments That Sparked My Body Insecurity

I can't remember how old I was, but the first time I heard variations of, "She's so little. Are you sure you're feeding her," was from church and family members. Meant as harmless jokes, they caused me to become hyper aware of my body in a way I'd never been before.

I knew people looked different, but my innocence made me believe it didn't matter. Adults were the ones who taught me it did, and if you didn't look 'just right'? Well, you'd eventually hear hushed whispers about it. From that point on, I stopped being picky with my food and tried to eat more than I usually did. But, guess whose body remained the same?

The more I ate and the more my body didn't change, the more I started to resent it for not looking the way I thought a well-fed child's body should look.

Introduction To Puberty

By the time I'd reached 3rd grade, I started hearing whispers about girls who were going through puberty. There was a ton of excitement about getting your period, but mostly everyone talked about how bodies started to 'fill out.' I was disappointed when 'the change' didn't happen for me that year, but I kept hope alive. Needless to say, I didn't gain weight in elementary school even though my friends' bodies were changing.The only signs of puberty I had were the first signs of underarm and pubic hair.

I didn't get my period until after the first day of sixth grade. It was relatively uneventful because I wasn't in pain and didn't see the second one until months later. As the months passed, my periods came and went. But, my body still looked unappealing to me. It didn't help that the guys in school were looking at girls who were more curvaceous either. I had major side character energy in school (or so I thought) and it was awful IMO. It's not that I wasn't liked, but the guys I thought were worth going after had their sights set on girls who didn't look like me.

By the time I made it to my junior year in high school, I stopped worrying about my appearance as much. I'd stopped really focusing on boys and started having fun with new friends. That was the best year in high school because my elective was a journalism class where I became the entertainment editor for the school newspaper. As far as my body insecurity? I barely thought twice about it because I felt I had more to offer than looks.

The Slow Journey To Accepting My Body

By the time I was in my early twenties, it was beyond clear that the body I had was the one given to me. I was tired of wishing I wasn't so slender and decided to start accepting my body for how it looked. I wish I could say I was 100% okay with my body after writing down a ton of affirmations to look at daily, but I wasn't.

I didn't start making peace with being slender until after I turned 28 (right after this photo was taken), and it started to feel good to stop worrying about why I wasn't a certain size. I'd wake up and be more concerned about wearing things that made me feel good instead of fixating on why my body was so small. Honestly, I didn't even flinch the day I found out I was pregnant because I figured I wouldn't gain much weight.

Pregnancy + Postpartum Body Changes

I should've prefaced that last sentence by saying I was convinced I'd still be small during pregnancy because my mom was small — like me — until her second pregnancy. Along with other people, I thought I'd have a round basketball in my stomach and that would be it. But, the day my stepdad rushed my fiancé and I to the hospital so I could give birth is the day I realized I'd gone from 117 pounds to 157.

I was blissfully unaware that my body had changed that much, and it was shocking because I couldn't fit into my carefully curated pre-pregnancy wardrobe. Not only was my postpartum body sore, but it also felt like I'd sprouted extra inches around my waist, hips, and thighs. I went from wanting those things to hating them when they started showing up.

I was devastated because I felt like I'd just learned how to accept my body, only to find new changes waiting for me to welcome into the picture. Also, everything was so soft and squishy — unlike the days where my slender frame felt like it had just enough to cover my bones.

Sadly, I lashed out at my fiancé a ton because I felt uncomfortable in my body — even though he couldn't see anything wrong with it. I was convinced he was trying to do damage control every time he tried to reassure me because I was dealing with major body insecurity.

I didn't start to truly see myself until I started going back to therapy and chose to accept my body as it is. This didn't happen overnight either. I wrote a ton of affirmations on sticky notes to place on my bathroom mirror, and recounted all the miraculous changes my body's gone through over the years. I also started giving myself grace for all the times I wasn't so kind to my body and made myself live in that space until it didn't feel like I had imposter syndrome anymore.

At the time of writing this, my son is three and I'm finally able to look in the mirror without criticizing myself — and I have the fourth trimester to thank for that. My postpartum body expanded in ways I never thought was possible, and it's shown me that change is only bad when I try to hold tight to other people's expectations.

How I Maintain Love For My Postpartum Body

Technically I haven't been postpartum in a while, but I always refer to my body this way because it serves as a reminder that it's been a long journey towards acceptance. The ways I continue to pour into myself vary from day to day, but here's the gist of what helps:

1. Daily Affirmations
2. Words Of Encouragement From My Partner
3. Reminders That My Body Knew What To Do To Carry A Child For 9 Months
4. Wearing Clothes I Genuinely Feel Good In
5. Replacing Negative Thoughts With Positive Ones
6. Giving Myself Grace For All The Moments I Hated My Body
7. Daily Gratitude Practice
8. Accepting That My Body Will Ebb & Flow Over The Years
9. Solo Dance Parties In My Bra & Underwear (I'm so serious, ha!)
10. Touching The Expanded Parts Of My Body & Saying "Hi")