 |
| source |
In the Woods by Tana French
Published: May 17th, 2007 by Penguin Books
Genre: Crime Fiction
Format: Kindle, 430 Pages, Own
Rating: 4 stars
Publisher's 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.
My Thoughts:
In my opinion, Tana French has a beautiful way with characters and world-building. I was thoroughly engaged in every character detail and their experiences in her world. Small-town Knocknaree in Ireland becomes a character itself, with its haunting forests, devilish sounds, and shadows.
The two main protagonists, Detective Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox are two sides of the same coin. They're almost like close siblings but not quite. I actually found Ryan as the first-person narrator rather annoying but I was ok with that because I enjoyed the enigmatic Cassie as seen through his eyes a lot more. To me, she's the real star of the story.
But the actual plot does pale in comparison, unfortunately. There is a murder that may be connected to the disappearance of Ryan's childhood friends when he was 12. But he can't remember anything about that experience. He was the lone survivor. But he takes the case and lies about his identity in order to stay on this present-day murder and hopefully find out what really happened to his friends and regain his memories. It's a long shot. The fact that Cassie covers for him is pretty unbelievable. Also, how they finally solve the crime was very disappointing.
But what can I say, I love a good character study. And French has a lot to say about human nature and various foibles and strengths. And overall the plot and the crime were interesting enough that I'll definitely read more her series.
I'm also grateful that she doesn't focus on one detective in every book. That's one of the reasons I don't read a lot of books in one series; it gets boring after the third or fourth book the same character is always in peril, getting kidnapped, beat up, stalked, etc.
I feel like French's books are literary fiction with murder as a plot device to talk about her characters and the world they inhabit. I know some readers aren't going to appreciate the poetic nature of her stories. I do and look forward to continuing her series.
