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, … 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 past.
Richly atmospheric, stunning in its complexity, and utterly convincing and surprising to the end, In the Woods is sure to enthrall fans of Mystic River and The Lovely Bones. And look for French’s new mystery, Broken Harbor, for more of the Dublin Murder Squad.
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This was a wonderfully written , fascinating book – I really enjoyed it! Until it STOPPED!
Love all of Tana French’s books! Read this one first.
I usually love Tana French, but felt this one was a bit boring with uninspiring characters.
Solid page turner with true to life characters.
There is a huge amount of pleasure to be gained from a good detective novel and I’m always on the lookout for a new series. I’ve been seeing great reviews of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series for a while now and I’m delighted to say that it lives up to the hype. It pulls you in right from the first page with absolutely stunning writing that completely transports the reader to a hazy summer day in a 1980s suburb of Dublin. But the loveliness of the scene belies the grim events about to occur; three pre-teens wander innocently into the woods to play and only one returns, spattered with blood, covered in mysterious scratch marks and with no memory of what has happened to him or his missing friends. This child, Rob, grows up to become a detective working on the eponymous Dublin Murder Squad and he tells almost no one about his own traumatic past. But one day the past comes back for him, as he and his partner are assigned a case where a child has been mysteriously murdered in the very same woods where he lost his friends and there is evidence to suggest the two cases are linked. This book is an absolute rollercoaster and while I have seen some reviewers complaining about finding the ending either too predictable or frustrating, I think they’re missing the point. In a well-constructed mystery the reader should have a pretty good idea of whodunnit by the climax of the novel and in a great novel not everything needs to be wrapped up in a neat bow. French has created a portrait of a messy person dealing with a messy situation that defies the conventional tropes of the mystery genre and as a result, transcends it. I will definitely be putting the rest of the Dublin Murder Squad books on my TBR.
French writes really good police procedurals. This is the one to start with…but don’t stop there
In the Woods was chosen as my Book Club’s book for September. I’d never read anything by Tana French before, and quite honestly had gotten away from thriller/mystery reading in favor of paranormal and dystopian lately. That being said, I did thoroughly enjoy this book. There were times when I could not put it down, and other times when it got so intense that I HAD to put it down and walk away for a moment. (Though I never had to put it in the freezer!) I have to admit to being more surprised than usual at what had happened and who the “bad guys” were. I suspected one, but the reasoning escaped me. The reason for 4 stars instead of 5 was simply the lack of information about the “cold case” we learn about in the beginning. I truly expected to have some sort of closure on that by the end and was disappointed to not get any. In any case, I enjoyed the book and do intend to check out the rest of the series.