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 …
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.
A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.
Loved, loved, loved this book. Beautifully written and captivating, human-centred and utterly believable. A big win for a crime drama novel.
On the surface a police procedural, but really more a character study. It nonetheless held this lazy readers attention all the way through. At the big reveal (which isn't what you think is the big reveal), I put the book down and and exclaimed something like "Oh wow, that's a bit too much".
I want to read the next in the series, but I need a break first.
It's not often I read mysteries, for some reason, so it was luck that I picked this one up. I enjoyed it immensely--the writing, the character development, and the plot.
This is a first-person narrative, from Rob Ryan's point of view. He and Cassie Maddox are the two main investigators in this tale, and their characters are very well developed, as is their relationship with each other. In the beginning, Rob and Cassie have a delightful friendship, with banter and picadillos that make for fun reading. Both have some real sadness in their pasts, and have coped with them in different ways.
As part of the Dublin Murder Squad, these two are investigating the murder of a 12-year-old girl, and are eventually joined by investigator Sam O'Neill. The threesome develop a pleasant friendship, one that seems to echo the situation Ryan knew in his boyhood--and still pines for.
As Ryan, …
It's not often I read mysteries, for some reason, so it was luck that I picked this one up. I enjoyed it immensely--the writing, the character development, and the plot.
This is a first-person narrative, from Rob Ryan's point of view. He and Cassie Maddox are the two main investigators in this tale, and their characters are very well developed, as is their relationship with each other. In the beginning, Rob and Cassie have a delightful friendship, with banter and picadillos that make for fun reading. Both have some real sadness in their pasts, and have coped with them in different ways.
As part of the Dublin Murder Squad, these two are investigating the murder of a 12-year-old girl, and are eventually joined by investigator Sam O'Neill. The threesome develop a pleasant friendship, one that seems to echo the situation Ryan knew in his boyhood--and still pines for.
As Ryan, Maddox, and O'Neill struggle to come up with leads and motives, many intriguing facts about this small town of Knocknaree and its denizens come to light. One of the reasons I thought this mystery was so good was its complexity--even if one guesses who must have done the job, the motive is illusive until the end.
Running parallel to the mystery are social changes within the Ryan-Maddox-O'Neill trio. In the end, for Ryan, there seems to be yet another echo of an earlier experience. I must add that Ryan did not paint himself as a wonderful person, and honestly, I thought he behaved reprehensively some of the time. Perhaps I should simply say, he could be a real jerk. Despite that, however, I did not hate him so much that I would avoid reading more about him. It's complicated...
I was very happy for Maddox and O'Neill. Especially for Maddox.
I'm tempted to give this three stars, but the author's style is worth an extra star. The plot haunted my dreams for a few nights.
I have been recommended the Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French multiple times, not sure why. So I finally decided to pick up the first book In the Woods, which tells the story of Detective Rob Ryan and Detective Cassie Maddox assigned to the murder of a twelve year old girl. More than twenty years ago Ryan and two friends got lost in the same woods. He returned, but what happened to his friends remains a mystery.
This was a fresh and dark psychological suspense, which I enjoyed far more than I expected. My problem with best-seller crime novels is they tend to be very formulaic and unoriginal. Tana French managed to keep the same format but still made the book stand out. I think the chemistry between Ryan and Maddox played a big part of this. I was shipping the two and hoping they will end up together. I …
I have been recommended the Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French multiple times, not sure why. So I finally decided to pick up the first book In the Woods, which tells the story of Detective Rob Ryan and Detective Cassie Maddox assigned to the murder of a twelve year old girl. More than twenty years ago Ryan and two friends got lost in the same woods. He returned, but what happened to his friends remains a mystery.
This was a fresh and dark psychological suspense, which I enjoyed far more than I expected. My problem with best-seller crime novels is they tend to be very formulaic and unoriginal. Tana French managed to keep the same format but still made the book stand out. I think the chemistry between Ryan and Maddox played a big part of this. I was shipping the two and hoping they will end up together. I hear this series follows different characters in the Dublin murder squad which I am worried about, I want more from these two characters.
This review originally appeared on my blog; www.knowledgelost.org/book-reviews/genre/thriller/mini-reviews-crime-edition/
First time in ages I've read an entire long novel in a single day.
Great development of the plot and the characters, but the ending was absolutely horrible. It was like watching the end of Dirty Harry.
This is worth buying just for the prologue. The writing is gorgeous. I've read reviews where people complained that the original crime isn't solved -- but I'm glad it wasn't. The original crime isn't really the point, and life just doesn't work that way. Interesting study of memory and how the mind copes with experiences that are just too enormous to integrate.
