Dublin-based thriller writer Tana French has cemented her place among the greatest crime writers of the modern era, after appearing on not one but two New York Times best-of-century lists, putting her in the company of legends like John Le Carré and Gillian Flynn.
French, who has called Ireland home for decades and set most of her acclaimed Dublin Murder Squad series in the streets and suburbs of the capital, was ranked by both critics and readers in the prestigious lists, which aimed to identify the defining crime and thriller fiction of the 21st century so far.
It is a remarkable achievement for a writer who only published her debut novel In The Woods back in 2007. That book, which introduced detective Rob Ryan investigating a child murder in a fictional Dublin suburb, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and immediately announced French as a major new voice in crime fiction. Readers and critics clearly have not forgotten it.
The Dublin Murder Squad series that followed built on that foundation book by book. Each novel centres on a different detective from the same squad, giving French the freedom to explore entirely new perspectives and psychological territory while keeping a loose thread connecting the stories. Titles like The Likeness, Faithful Place, and In The Woods are now considered modern classics of the genre.
What sets French apart from many of her contemporaries is her deep focus on character and place. Her Dublin is not a backdrop, it is almost a character in itself. She writes the city and its surrounding landscapes with an intimacy that resonates strongly with Irish readers while also drawing in a massive international audience who come for the atmosphere as much as the mystery.
Her more recent standalone novels have shown she is not content to stay in one lane either. The Witch Elm, published in 2018, was a darker and more unsettling departure, while The Searcher and its follow-up The Hunter moved the action out west to rural Ireland, tapping into a completely different side of the country. Both were bestsellers and both were praised for capturing something raw and real about rural Irish life.
Being placed alongside John Le Carré, the British spy novelist widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, is no small thing. Le Carré spent decades building a body of work that transcended genre fiction entirely. Similarly, Gillian Flynn, the American author behind Gone Girl, essentially rewrote the rules of psychological thriller writing when that book landed in 2012. For French to be mentioned in the same breath as both is a serious statement about where her career stands right now.
French has spoken in interviews about her love of Ireland as a setting, describing the country as having a complicated and layered relationship with its own history that makes it endlessly interesting to write about. That tension between surface and what lies underneath is very much at the heart of everything she writes.
The New York Times lists were compiled using a combination of expert critics and public reader votes, meaning French earned her spots through both literary credibility and genuine popular appeal. That combination is harder to pull off than it sounds, and plenty of critically adored writers never quite manage to crack a mass readership the way French has.
For Irish literature more broadly, the recognition is another reminder of how strong the country punches when it comes to fiction. From Sally Rooney dominating literary fiction conversations globally to French owning the crime space, Irish writers are very much at the centre of international publishing right now.
French is currently based in Dublin and continues to write. Given the trajectory of her career so far, it seems unlikely these lists will be the last major recognition coming her way.