Sure Bet: Tana French

One of my favorite authors both to read and suggest to patrons is Tana French.  For years I have given her books to people who like crime fiction and/or literary fiction who want a “good read.” I love how the books are connected but not a series so you can give any of them to any reader, at any time.

I have not had a disappointed customer yet. Just about every avid reader can enjoy French. She is easy to hand out as a sure bet when you or your patron is not sure what to read next.

Personally, I also enjoy her novels and have read most of them in audio. You can click here to see my reviews of her books.

Honestly, I have never been able to put my finger on exactly why she makes for such a sure bet option. The books are challenging, but extremely well plotted.  Her characters are compelling and well developed, but are also often unreliable which can turn some people off. All signs point to French not being so easy to hand out. 

So why is she enjoyed by such a range of readers?

Thanks to my colleague, and friend of the blog, Stephanie Anderson, I was pointed to this profile on French for the New Yorker which goes a long way to explaining why her writing is enjoyed by so many. Check it out for yourself.

This got me to thinking about French and sure bets in general. I often get questions about sure bet authors.  I never started a tag [until now] for sure bets, but today I am doing it with this post. I have posted about sure bets before and you can click here to pull all of those posts up. There is a lot of good information there. 

Having a go-to list of sure bets, is a RA Service life saver [longer post about that here], and I am here solely to help you be better at your job. So, I will try to more regularly do posts on authors who are good sure bet options. Use this post and the links I included above to start building your own sure bet list and look for more help in the future and give a reader a Tana French novel in the meantime.