Book Review ~ In the Woods by Tana French

Title: In the Woods

Author: Tana French
Published: 2008

Summary
A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children. He is gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past. 


Thoughts: 
Okay so this wasn’t what I thought it would be and to be 100% honest I don’t recall any of the characters being mentioned in other books. I should but what I love about this series is that while it focuses on the Dublin Murder Squad each book gets their own lead and doesn’t really bring in the others unless necessary so there is no reason that Rob, Cassie or Sam would ever be mentioned in the other books. Now that I have cleared that up for the record, I have read 2 other books in this series. Broken Harbor was the first one I read, and it was book 4, then I read Faithful place book 3. I still haven’t read book 2 and part of me really wants to just get the whole series and sit down and push through them. The other thing to know about this book is the sheer size of it. There are 429 pages and it is almost always told in the detectives POV which means you don’t want to for any reason skip or skim parts which is usually how I read. If you do you may find out that it was important, and a part was that I had skimmed through in this book, so I had to go back and find that section.

The other thing is this writer is detailed, not overly so but enough that you almost want to ask why that was important. Only to find out that yes it was important and damn it you are glad you paid attention. She is also good at painting the background and scenery for you so that you feel like you are in Ireland. Another cool part is the fact she very rarely uses accents in this book which is great because they tend to beyond distract me when reading. I also enjoy getting to know the detectives on such a personal and close base. Since it is their POV you can’t help but feel as if the detective is telling you this story over a pint in a local pub.

Now the mystery and murder. This book had 2 story lines going on and I’ll be damned if they didn’t intertwine or both get solved. The main mystery is a child murder case which brings up the past of the detective trying to solve it. We figure out the killing slowly as his life unravels due to keeping his identity a secret. He literally loses everything. We also see how the murder does tie in but not to the old case and how much that unsolved case could haunt someone. I’d like to say that Rob grows throughout the story, but he doesn’t and honestly that made it even better. I personally like flawed characters and I like to see them struggle. Sometimes I want growth but other times I like to see that there isn’t always a growth process that takes place in a book that has a mystery that is solved in 2 months. The mystery was interesting and not easy but when it came together, I was like yeah I kind of suspected that but I was so focused on the slight of hands with the other mystery that I couldn’t put all the pieces together.

Is this one I would suggest? Yes, in a heartbeat I happen to really enjoy Ms. French and I always suggest her novels to anyone looking for a good mystery, with flawed characters, interesting backstories and a niche for flowery prose.