In the Woods: A Novel (Dublin Murder Squad)
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLER OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
“[Tana French is] required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence, and ingenious plotting.” —The New York Times
The bestselling first novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series, with over a million copies sold, that launched Tana French, “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post).
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 past.
Richly atmospheric and stunning in its complexity, In the Woods is utterly convincing and surprising to the end.
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Readers say *In the Woods* delivers gritty, atmospheric Irish policing with strong psychological depth, vivid Dublin/Knocknaree setting, and well-deve...
I had put off reading this because I had the impression that the crime under investigation was particularly grisly. That wasn't the case, or at least, hasn't yet been revealed to be the case. The mystery of what happened to the main character as a boy isn't solved in this book, but perhaps it is in the sequel.
I enjoyed the story, but it seemed longer than it needed to be and could've benefited from some editing to reduce redundancy. I also didn't find the main character's reaction to his partner after they slept together to be all that believable. Why was he being such a jerk, esp. when he earlier had described being in love with her?
I'm torn between three and four stars but will leave it at four because I enjoyed the story enough to want to read the sequel.
I enjoyed the story, but it seemed longer than it needed to be and could've benefited from some editing to reduce redundancy. I also didn't find the main character's reaction to his partner after they slept together to be all that believable. Why was he being such a jerk, esp. when he earlier had described being in love with her?
I'm torn between three and four stars but will leave it at four because I enjoyed the story enough to want to read the sequel.
This is another one for my 2025 cleaning out the to-read closet challenge; it’s been on my list since Jul2022. This is also my first Tana French reading experience. Over the years, I have read so many great reviews of her work, especially this series. One of the things that I found appealing about the series is that every installment seems to focus on a different member of the Dublin Murder Squad. It reminds me of other fave authors of mine who do that, like Rebecca Zanetti and Mary Burton. They allow their fans to get to know other members of the world where the series takes place.
The book summary is pretty vague and basically just introduces the storyline of a 12yr old girl found murdered, on an archeological site, in Knocknaree Ireland. The girl is found with an item that reminds Det Rob Ryan of his childhood friend, Jamie. It was 20yrs ago that Rob (only back then he was Adam), Jamie and Peter ran into the woods to play and only Rob made it out bloodied and clinging to a tree for dear life. He was hospitalized and catatonic for weeks. His family left the area and he’s never been back until now.
The first half of the story was really slow, at least to me it was, and it definitely dragged down the story. It seemed like it took wwwaaayyy too long to get to the second half of the story, where the story and pacing finally picked up just a little bit. Most of the story revolved around the investigation of the dead girl, who Ryan and Cassie felt like it may have a connection to the case 20yrs ago, but, once again, it took way too long to discover that it didn’t.
Deep in the second half the storyline (finally!!!) the team, the cases and the storyline start to unravel. By this time, I had no idea who the killer was and didn’t really care. The story had long become tedious and drawn-out. The ending was actually anti-climactic, but thankfully the story was over.
The character development for Rob and Cassie and a few other characters was well done and the rest were basically talking heads. I think I’ve made my opinion regarding the pacing pretty clear so I’m not going to repeat it again. The storyline was interesting, but because of the pacing, I found myself getting bored with all of the minutia. The same can be said for the writing - wwwaaayyy too much minutia! This story probably could have been pared down by at least 100pgs without losing vital components of the storyline. I don’t know if this is classic Tana French, but if it is, this will be a one and done for me and this author, thus making me a bit of an outlier for the author’s work. I’m looking at an overall rating of 2.7 that I will round up to a 3star review.
The book summary is pretty vague and basically just introduces the storyline of a 12yr old girl found murdered, on an archeological site, in Knocknaree Ireland. The girl is found with an item that reminds Det Rob Ryan of his childhood friend, Jamie. It was 20yrs ago that Rob (only back then he was Adam), Jamie and Peter ran into the woods to play and only Rob made it out bloodied and clinging to a tree for dear life. He was hospitalized and catatonic for weeks. His family left the area and he’s never been back until now.
The first half of the story was really slow, at least to me it was, and it definitely dragged down the story. It seemed like it took wwwaaayyy too long to get to the second half of the story, where the story and pacing finally picked up just a little bit. Most of the story revolved around the investigation of the dead girl, who Ryan and Cassie felt like it may have a connection to the case 20yrs ago, but, once again, it took way too long to discover that it didn’t.
Deep in the second half the storyline (finally!!!) the team, the cases and the storyline start to unravel. By this time, I had no idea who the killer was and didn’t really care. The story had long become tedious and drawn-out. The ending was actually anti-climactic, but thankfully the story was over.
The character development for Rob and Cassie and a few other characters was well done and the rest were basically talking heads. I think I’ve made my opinion regarding the pacing pretty clear so I’m not going to repeat it again. The storyline was interesting, but because of the pacing, I found myself getting bored with all of the minutia. The same can be said for the writing - wwwaaayyy too much minutia! This story probably could have been pared down by at least 100pgs without losing vital components of the storyline. I don’t know if this is classic Tana French, but if it is, this will be a one and done for me and this author, thus making me a bit of an outlier for the author’s work. I’m looking at an overall rating of 2.7 that I will round up to a 3star review.