Is Dublin Murders based on a true story and what are Tana French’s novels about?
DUBLIN Murders, BBC One's psychological crime thriller, has been adapted from the successful novels written by Dublin's leading crime writer Tana French.
It focuses on two murder investigations led by charismatic young detectives Rob Reilly and Cassie Maddox. But is the nail-biting plot based on a true story and what are the author's books about? Here's what you need to know...
Is Dublin Murders based on a true story?
Killian Scott and Sarah Greene are detectives Rob Reilly and Cassie Maddox in Dublin Murders, a new psychological crime thriller for BBC One.
The Beeb’s eight-part series is drawn from Tana French’s internationally bestselling Dublin Murder Squad novels – blending the first two novels, In the Woods, and The Likeness.
Her Dublin murder squad is fictional, and while not based on a true story, French once said that “finding out you might be capable of more than you think can be terrifying”.
What are Tana French's books about?
Dublin Murders is drawn from Tana French’s internationally bestselling five-book Dublin Murder Squad novels.
Each novel is led by a different detective from the same team and their signature is an intense emotional connection between cop and crime, explains the BBC.
In The Woods, book one of five in the Dublin Murder Squad series is the inspiration for the major new BBC drama series, along with the second novel, The Likeness.
For French's In The Woods, Amazon's blurb says: "When he was twelve years old, Adam Ryan went playing in the woods with his two best friends. He never saw them again.
"Their bodies were never found, and Adam himself was discovered with his back pressed against an oak tree and his shoes filled with blood. He had no memory of what had happened.
"Twenty years on, Rob Ryan - the child who came back - is a detective in the Dublin police force.
"He's changed his name. No one knows about his past. Then a little girl's body is found at the site of the old tragedy and Rob is drawn back into the mystery.
"Knowing that he would be thrown off the case if his past were revealed, Rob takes a fateful decision to keep quiet but hope that he might also solve the twenty-year-old mystery of the woods."
The blurb for book two, The Likeness, explains: "Still traumatised by her brush with a psychopath, Detective Cassie Maddox transfers out of the Murder squad and starts a relationship with fellow detective Sam O'Neill.
"When he calls her to the scene of his new case, she is shocked to find that the murdered girl is her double. "What's more, her ID shows she is Lexie Madison - the identity Cassie used, years ago, as an undercover detective.
"With no leads, no suspects and no clues to Lexie's real identity, Cassie's old boss spots the opportunity of a lifetime: send Cassie undercover in her place, to tempt the killer out of hiding to finish the job."
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The third book in the Dublin Murder Squad thriller series is Faithful Place, followed by Broken Harbour and the final novel, The Secret Place.
In an interview with The Irish Times, French said she enjoys writing mysteries because “human beings are the most amazing, fascinating mystery of all: how we work and how we turn into who we are”.
She credits Stephen King’s It for fostering her interest in this genre.