The Secret History (1992) had a sensational, page-turning start. A brilliant novel.Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Tartt then wrote The Little Friend (2002) which was long and odd. Again it had a strong start but maybe 100 pages from the end one felt she had got bored or needed to meet a publishing deadline or something... and the finish was incidents crashing into each other in relatively few pages (in a Tartt novel "few" can mean 100 pages).
The Goldfinch (after the famous Fabritius painting) is not about a goldfinch or even the painting which is merely a MacGuffin on which to hang the story (after Alfred Hitchcock)- but it's a good enough story with lots of interesting characters. And another very explosive (ha!) opening.
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