In the Woods: A Novel (Dublin Murder Squad)
The bestselling debut, with over a million copies sold, that launched Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Hunter and âthe most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 yearsâ (The Washington Post).
âRequired reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting.â âThe New York Times
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 Maddoxâhis partner and closest friendâfind 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.
âRequired reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting.â âThe New York Times
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 Maddoxâhis partner and closest friendâfind 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.
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
Most of what happens in this book is pretty obvious. At first I liked the main character, Rob Ryan, but his personality completely changes in the middle of the book and after he turns into a whiny jerk, I kind of lost interest. I kept on reading because I was still curious about what happened to his friend when they were children, but the book never completes that story line so I was just kind of disappointed. I did really like the Cassie character though.
I adore Tana French. I read her newest (at this time) book, Hunter, and wanted to read more from her. I went back to her first novel, In The Woods, and flew through it. Iâm almost finished The Likeness and canât wait to read on. A must read author even if you donât love Mysteries.
Somewhere along the line I fell in love with the way Tana French writes and this book is one of the best I've read, not only of French's but of all the books I've finished this year. There's something strange happening in the woods and 20 years after two local children disappear, another girl is found murdered. But for some reason, no one has seen or heard a thing. And to top it all off, the man who comes back to investigate the crime? He's the last one to see the older victims alive. There's small town drama, a big city mystery, and a whole host of characters that make you want to keep reading along and maybe shouting once or twice, "HOW DUMB ARE YOU??"
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.