In the Woods

by Tana French

eBook, 593 pages

Published May 17, 2007 by Viking Penguin.

ISBN:: 978-1-101-14715-3

(10 reviews)

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 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 twelve-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 …

Richly atmospheric and stunning in its complexity, In the Woods is utterly convincing and surprising to the end.

1 edition

Wintermute reviewed In the Woods by Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)

Review of 'In the Woods' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

"...she fooled you, too."

Unfortunately, this line didn't work for me because, no she fucking didn't. Maybe I am just too genre-savvy at this point (or simply too not-male), but that little bitch was sus as hell from the get-go. Even before she started shamelessly blowing smoke up our narrator's arse, she was clearly off.

Still rounding up from 3.5 stars because there was a lot more than the "whodunnit" going on here. Good writing, complex and well-developed characters, and interesting procedural drama. Very glad the story didn't simply end with the revelation but got into the complications, and ultimately the failure, of actually bringing the case to justice.