The Secret Place

Written by Irish American author Tana French, The Secret Place (2014) combines elements of thrillers and police procedurals and follows Dublin detectives Stephen Moran and Antoinette Conway as they pursue new leads in a year-old murder case on the grounds of a private Catholic boarding school. As the detectives sort through hidden pieces of evidence and conflicting stories, they interview two groups of female students who provide only partial, often conflicting stories. The murder victim, Chris, was a student at the neighboring boys’ school, and it is not immediately evident how well each of the girls knew Chris and how much of their relationships with him they might be keeping secret. 

As the fifth installment in French’s six-book, best-selling, prize-winning Dublin Murder Squad series, the novel features French’s characteristically complex storytelling style, delving into key aspects of Irish history and culture. Through a series of dark plot twists, the novel explores Societal Pressures on Adolescent Girls in Ireland, The Dangers of Conforming to Group Dynamics, and The Tension Between Secrecy and Transparency. 

This guide refers to the 2015 paperback edition published by Penguin Books. 

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, sexual violence and harassment, bullying, gender discrimination, substance use, and cursing. 

Plot Summary

As the novel begins, Holly Mackey, a student at St. Kilda’s Catholic boarding school, brings a postcard to Dublin detective Stephen Moran, claiming that it is evidence in a murder case. (Holly and Stephen know each other because Holly’s father, Frank, is also a detective and because Holly was a witness in a case that Stephen worked on a few years ago.) The postcard was found on a school bulletin board dubbed the “Secret Place”: a space in which the girls are encouraged to share secrets anonymously. It has been written by someone who claims to know the guilty party in a murder that occurred last year on St. Kilda’s grounds. The murder victim was a boy named Chris Harper, who attended the neighboring boys’ school, Colm’s; his murderer has not yet been charged. 

Stephen learns that detective Antoinette Conway, who has a tough reputation, is the lead investigator on this case. Stephen offers to move from the cold case unit to the murder squad where Antoinette works, and she accepts his offer on a provisional basis. 

The two head over to St. Kilda’s to begin interviewing students, and two groups of girls emerge as likely witnesses or suspects: Holly’s group, which includes her friends Becca, Julia, and Selena, and the other clique, whom Holly’s group has dubbed the “Daleks,” which consists of Joanne, Gemma, Orla, and Alison. There is noticeable antipathy between these two factions of girls, and their respective stories often contradict each another. The detectives believe that each group is trying to cast doubt on the other. 

In chapters that alternate between the detectives’ investigation and the months leading up to Chris’s death, the novel slowly reveals the truth of Chris’s murder and the subsequent cover-up. The detectives begin by getting to know the girls, discerning the difference between each group’s internal dynamics and hierarchies. Joanne’s group is manipulative, cruel, and deeply invested in conformity, while Holly’s clique is more comfortable with individuality and is interested in female friendships rather than dating. Joanne’s group loathes Holly’s clique in part because Holly and her friends do not feel bound by current styles and trends. Holly’s group dislikes Joanne and her friends because of their gossipy, malicious behavior. The detectives begin by attempting to figure out who placed the postcard that Holly found. Both groups of girls had access to the Secret Place during the time when the card was likely placed. 

During the novel’s flashback chapters, various secrets, lies, and clandestine relationships begin to come to light. Although Chris is a popular student, he engages in a series of hookups, often with multiple girls at once. He gives each of the girls he begins seeing a pink flip phone so that they can communicate secretly. (Both the schools’ nuns and priests routinely read their students’ texts, and it is also common for students to steal each other’s phones and snoop through the contents.) Chris is in a relationship with Joanne, although he gradually ghosts her as he loses interest and begins seeing someone new. He has a series of these relationships, but he ultimately settles on Selena. Joanne is furious when she finds out because she cannot handle the idea that Chris has dumped her for a girl whom she despises. When Selena’s friends learn about the relationship, they worry because Chris is a well-known flirt, and they cannot believe that his intentions toward Selena are honorable. 

The girls in Joanne’s and Holly’s groups have both been sneaking out of St. Kilda’s at night for a while now. Julia obtained one of the school’s few keys and was forced to make a copy of it for Joanne when Joanne discovered that Holly, Julia, and their friends had stolen the key. (During these late-night trips to the recesses of the school grounds, Selena first begins to secretly meet up with Chris, and it is also during these trips that Joanne’s group becomes aware of Selena and Chris dating.) Selena is just as aware of Chris’s bad behavior as her friends are, so she ends the relationship not long after it begins. Although she is sure that his love for her is genuine, she does not see a future with Chris. She hopes to remain friends, but Chris is too wounded by her rejection to agree. 

As the girls in Holly’s group begin to find out about Selena and Chris, they decide to take matters into their own hands. One by one, they find the secret phone that Chris gave to Selena. Using this phone, Julia pretends to be Selena and messages Chris, asking to meet him late at night. Knowing that he is more interested in sex than in truly getting to know the girls that he dates and discards, Julia offers to have sex with him in exchange for his promise to stay away from Selena. He agrees. Secretly, Becca also finds Selena’s phone and uses it to impersonate Selena, texting Chris and setting up a meeting. However, when she meets with Chris, she murders him because she sees him as a threat to the cohesion of her friend group. When Chris’s body is found, Holly is sure that someone in her group will be targeted by the police’s investigation, so she drops Selena’s phone into the school’s lost and found to dispose of it. 

In the present-day narrative, as the detectives interview and re-interview each girl, they sort through rumors and contradictory stories, ultimately learning that Becca is Chris’s killer. They also discover the other girls’ roles in the series of events that led to the murder. 

The last of the novel’s secret, which is revealed only in the novel’s final flashback, is that Holly is the one who penned the fateful postcard. In the wake of Chris’s death, she can see Selena unraveling. Although Selena is sure that she shouldn’t have dated Chris, she did genuinely love him and becomes mired in grief over his death. Holly decides that closure is what Selena needs to move on. At this point, she suspects that Joanne has either committed or ordered the murder, so she creates the postcard and brings it to a detective whom she knows to be thorough and thoughtful. She never imagines that her act will lead to Becca’s arrest.