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Loading... In the Woods (original 2007; edition 2008)by Tana French
3   fyrefly98 | Oct 20, 2009 | 
excellent character development of all involved as the plot is developed. wonderful descriptive scenery. loved the dialogue and the cheeky sense of humor in their thoughts and interactons. (  ) emmyann | Feb 12, 2012 | Twenty years ago, young Rob faced tragedy in his small town that has stayed with him throughout his life. Now, as a murder investigator, he must return to this tow, and all of the memories it carries, to find the killer of a twelve year old girl. A fabulous debut by author Tana French, In The Woods is written with the flair and confidence of a seasoned storyteller. There has been some debate about the ending, but I thought French really captured the true essence of the "real world". This beautifully imagined mystery is a must read. ( ) es135 | Jan 14, 2012 | The pages turn themselves! Definitely a perfect debut novel for French and keeps you guessing and guessing until the end. There are little hints that make you think of murder suspects, but definitely a twist in the end! (  ) irinka87 | Jan 3, 2012 | Wonderful: This is a terrific NOVEL that happens to be a murder mystery as well. It is one of the best books I have ever read - interesting plot that gradually and naturally unfolds, complex and interesting characters, realistic dialog, and a theme that raises (and resolves) larger issues. First-rate; I only hope the author will write many more books and live forever! lonepalm | Dec 8, 2011 | All the praise was just. [In the woods] was all that and a bag of chips. I did have some complaints though. Each character was well drawn and remained true to their personality throughout. My complaint is with the fact that several people seemed to be left hanging without resolution but since her next book has these characters in it I guess there was good reason . The dialogue was fantastic and the story just complicated enough. I always like when there is something for me to learn,in this case,police procedure and archeology.The author clearly does her homework and I admit to being amazed that this is her first book. There is nothing that would make me think that . If you like a mystery, you'll like this. I'm on to her next book "The Likeness" now. Edit | More (  ) mmignano11 | Dec 6, 2011 | I really liked this book but was so disappointed when the first mystery went unsolved. Maybe in subsequent books the author will solve it, but I really wanted resolution. ( ) dablackwood | Dec 5, 2011 | What a mystery! What an Irish psychological thriller! In the Woods follows the trail of the disappearance 30 years ago of two children, friends, while a third came home. The third one is now Detective Rob Ryan and he's called to investigate a tragic murder in the same woods. Tana French weaves a suspenseful tale, combining the heartache endured by the families of 30 years ago with the desperation of the present day family enduring their loss. ( ) saemmerson | Dec 2, 2011 | This book left me cranky. I'm not usually a very good mystery-reader, either I'm cross because I figure out the mystery and feel like it should have been harder, or I'm cross because I don't figure out the mystery and at the end, the reveal feels downright smug. This, however, made me cranky because it decides not to wrap up an undercurrent that ran throughout the entire book. The main mystery, a murdered little girl, is tied up, but the secondary mystery is just sort of left on the side of the road. (The main character's two best friends disappeared one day when they were all twelve, leaving the main character clutching a tree, with socks full of blood and no memory of what happened.) I guess I believe if that much time is going to be spent on something, I want the whole story. I suggest skipping this book. omnia_mutantur | Nov 26, 2011 | Tana French’s Irish crime mystery, [In the Woods], is easily one of the most accurate and realistic police procedurals to grace the genre. Detective Rob Ryan has a secret. As a boy, he went missing with two of his playmates in the glen near their blue-collar neighborhood. The most irritating part of the secret is that he doesn’t remember what happened. His two friends were never found, and he was discovered with blood filling the inside of his sneakers. Memories, or fear-filled hallucinations, about the missing time begin to creep in on Ryan as he investigates the murder of an adolescent girl in the same wood where he and his friends went missing. The formula for police procedurals focuses on the day-to-day activity of police activity. But latter-day procedurals have become obsessed with forensics and psychological analysis and gun-play. The authors in this genre rarely focus in on the more mundane, but much more commonly used, police techniques of background investigation and interview/interrogation. What makes French different from other entries in the type is that she so fully embraces the subtle creativity exhibited by police officers in both of these areas to both tell her story and solve the crimes at the heart of her novel. I had to look up French’s background about halfway through the book to discover where and how long she had been a detective, only to find out that she was an actress before gaining success as a writer. The interviews and interrogations featured in French’s novel are among the most realistic I’ve ever read, with psychological techniques and strategies that are used every day in interview rooms around the world. And the attention to detail and exhaustive thoroughness in the background work her of detectives is a singular rarity in crime fiction. In an author’s note, French thanks an individual for his help in answering questions about police procedure – whoever this fellow is, he gave her, and her readers, a rare glimpse at the real world of criminal investigation. Another added reality boost for French’s novel is the ambiguous ending. I won’t give it away here, but suffice to say that not every question is answered, not every mystery solved. For those of you who crave thrilling action in your mysteries, French still adds a fair amount of fancy and excitement to her story, including an element of the supernatural that she hints at throughout the unraveling mystery. Bottom Line: A solid police procedural firmly grounded in the real, if mundane, world of crime and law enforcement; it even features some thrills and chills for those more interested in excitement than accuracy. 5 bones!!!!! A favorite for the year. ( ) blackdogbooks | Sep 25, 2011 | Like Mystic River and Lovely Bones, this book will stay with me for a long time. Not every question was answered and nothing about the case or the characters was tidy. Perhaps that’s why I liked it. It was more in sync with reality than is the case for most books. I picked it up because a reader’s review was selected for Powell’s Daily Dose and as such, the review landed in my inbox. It was compared to Mystic River and Lovely Bones, two favorites of mine. The comparison proved accurate. And, as I said, my reaction to this book is much like my reaction to those. The story is of an Irish detective assigned to solve the case of a murdered girl. This particular murder proves haunting to him because his two best friends from childhood disappeared in the same wood. He was with them at the time, but has no memory of what happened to him or his friends. He shares this connection with his partner/best friend, but fails to tell his boss because he doesn’t want to be taken off the case. Not surprisingly, he loses perspective and his secret is eventually found out. What disturbs and intrigues me is that this detective narrates the story and points out in the beginning and in the end that he is a liar. This acknowledgement puts everything he says into question. He can’t even trust his own memories. I like that this book takes place in Ireland. It gives it a different flavor. The main characters are supremely well drawn and complex. The mysteries that play out in the woods are fascinating, and the answers are elusive. If cozy mysteries are your taste, this is not the book for you. It also contains a considerable amount of blue language. This also isn’t a serial killer type book with gory descriptions. This is a dark and edgy mystery with complex characters and no easy answers. It leaves you unsettled long after you have turned the final page. What isn’t a mystery is why it was a finalist for the Edgar Award (named for Edgar Allan Poe). ( ) AllieHM | Sep 10, 2011 | *SPOILER ALERT* In "In the Woods" Tana French sets up a classic "locked room" type mystery - a crime that seems unsolvable - and then leaves it unsolved. The appeal of such a time-honored device in a mystery is that the reader expects an ingenious solution at the end, but I suspect Tana French didn't have one. Instead, you get endless passages devoted to her detective's inner angst, and an unsatisfying secondary mystery which is easily resolved. She does have talent - she can write prose that keeps you turning the pages - but she overwrites and her plotting and characterizations need work. (  ) damselfly | Aug 17, 2011 | I used to read a lot of mysteries and got pretty burnt out on them. I decided to pick this one up after hearing it recommended by several sources. A good mystery? Set in Ireland? Yes, please! Turns out that it was a good mystery though i wish it had more of a sense of place than it did. There were a few little nuggets here and there - but it really didn't feel like a very Irish book to me. The mystery is good - the writing is fast paced and quickly engaging. The characters are well drawn and pretty impressively complex for this kind of novel. I really enjoyed it - I thought the ending was satisfactory - though as with many great mystery novels - I would have liked even more - but that is not how life works so I guess it is understandable. Recommended! ( ) alanna1122 | Aug 13, 2011 | Excellent murder mystery with a great cast of characters. Set in Ireland. Loved it! ( ) wendytrim | Aug 3, 2011 | I had a bit of a hard time getting into this one. Though, Im certain is was "life" and not the books fault. Took me all month to read. Im a little let down on the the whole "wrapping it all up". Counted pages to see if I'd skipped a chapter somehow... (  ) BunnyCates | Jul 30, 2011 | Obviously Tana French was not writing a Hollywood movie. The narrator becomes quite an unappealing guy, and where's the tie ups for all the loose endings? I'm ambivalent about mysteries. I've never known someone who was murdered or who was a murderer, so as far as I'm concerned they don't really represent my life. On the other hand they are interesting and keep the reader guessing. So what does Tana French do but write a novel about people who might actually exist. Yes there is a mystery, more than one, with all the attendant interest that provokes, but more than that there are real people involved on all sides. You know how they say in a play if you see a gun in the first act someone is going to get shot in the third? Well, in this novel you see lots of things, some lead to ends, some just lead to more things. Characters act in both expected and very unexpected ways. Victims and perpetrators have back stories, and then there are more back stories, and then there are "what the heck?" Sometimes a story ends with a very contrived lead in to the next novel. French leaves us wanting more but not directing us where to find it. This is just about a perfect mystery. ( )1 Citizenjoyce | Jul 22, 2011 | This is the first novel by the strikingly beautiful Tana French (if you can believe the dust cover photo), which won the 2007 Edgar award for first novel among other awards. In 1984, three 12 year old children go missing in a woods near their home outside Belfast, Ireland. Only one is found, Adam Ryan, clinging terrified to a tree wearing blood soaked sneakers, but he has no memory of what happened to him and his two friends, who are never found. Fast forward 20 years, and Adam is now Rob Ryan, a detective investigating the murder of a 12 year old girl whose body was found in the same Knocknaree woods. Of course, he should not be investigating this case, which could be related to the older one when he was a victim. But, no one except his partner Cassie Maddox knows about his history. There are plenty of suspects to keep you guessing. The participants in an archeological dig on the site where the body is found; the girl's family; the proponents of a highway project that the girl's father was a vocal opponent of; or perhaps the perpetrator of the older crime from 1984. Rob and Cassie have a very close platonic relationship, the kind that most brothers and sisters can only dream about. They spend long evenings after work discussing the case, he stays over and sleeps on her couch. A third detective is assigned to help them; he investigates the political aspects of the case. This book is very well written. The prose virtually glitters at points. The plot is well put together (although it turned out that some questions that I had about the plot structure early in the book turned out to be important at the end.) An excellent book of its type. I plan to read the rest of her books soon. I've already put in a hold at the library for her second book. ( ) BillPilgrim | Jul 21, 2011 | 1 tamaranth | Jul 21, 2011 | The body of a 12 year old girl is found at an archaeological site where a new motorway will be built. One of the detectives had a special connection to the site. He was the only survivor among three friends in that location which was then woods. Are the cases related or is the location just coincidental? This is a well-written mystery, and one which definitely held my attention. My biggest problem was in believing that the Detective Ryan's real identity and interest in the earlier case was not previously known by his superiors. I also found it difficult to believe that his partner who knew did not choose to reveal the conflict of interest, knowing it could damage the case. I was disappointed that only one of the two cases was resolved. Perhaps the other will be resolved in a future installment. (  ) thornton37814 | Jul 16, 2011 | I loved this book- this was a book that I read until 2 am nonstop until I finished. The relationships, the dialogue, the mystery all were very well written. The end was not quite the ending I had hoped for- especially the late night phone call to Cassie, and what we did and didn't learn about the 1984 disappearances. ( ) cinnamonowl | Jul 7, 2011 | Good debut novel...great characters and enjoyable story. It was somewhat predictable in some parts and left me hanging on one of the story lines. Looks like there is an upcoming sequel. ( ) dgmlrhodes | Jul 1, 2011 | Murder Detective Rob Ryan is investigating a case chillingly similar to one he was involved in twenty years before. As he struggles to piece together his fractured memories with the new case, his life grows increasingly complicated. (Character, Language) ( ) victorianist | Jun 20, 2011 | Absolutely loved the book's opening and was intrigued by both mysteries and how they might be related. Overall, I found the book well-written and it kept my interest. By the middle of the book I wanted to throttle the narrator for his stupidity. Overall it was a good read but I really wish the author had wrapped up both mysteries or at least let us know from the start that we were never going to have closure in the disappearance of Rob Ryan's childhood friends. ( ) rizeandshine | Jun 2, 2011 | I was not in the mood to read that specific book when I picked it up. But I'm very happy that I finally got around to it. It as been on my TBR pile since 2009 and I kept pushing it to the bottom. The story follows the life of detective Rob (Adam) Ryan through out a case that brings him extremely close to a tragedy that happened during is childhood. ct.bergeron | May 29, 2011 | I read this book for my book club. I was a little disappointed in the ending since one of the story lines was left unclear. Overall it was a good mystery. A little on the long side but still good. I am not sure if I would read another book by this author since there are so many other books I want to read. ( ) schoolnurse | May 25, 2011 | While I wouldn’t call it a page-turner, because it was somewhat slow at times, I was drawn into this story and I needed to know how it ended. Ms. French occasionally becomes lost in reflection -- I didn’t really need to know the main character’s every single thought -- it made for a really long book. And, since it’s written by a woman, but is being told from a man’s view point, it didn’t always seem realistic. Do men really think like that?! Other than that though, I found In the Woods to be a compelling, easy-to-read thriller, with lots of intriguing twists and turns. In the Woods solves one mystery, but leaves another unresolved. I can see how this would annoy some readers. I am holding out hope that Adam (Rob) Ryan’s story will be explained in Tara French’s next book The Likeness. ( ) CentralCaliGrrrl | May 9, 2011 | |
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6
Review: This book affected me more profoundly than anything I've read for a long time. I read the first half of the book relatively slowly, taking my time and savoring French's wonderful way with the language, but then I sat and read the entire second half of the book in one evening... and it may have been the fact that I was up way past my normal bedtime, or the fact that I had been sitting still for so long, or my scratchy contacts, or something, but man, the last hundred pages just absolutely wrung me out, left me feeling sad and heavy and hollow, and with a sore throat like I'd been holding back tears for a few hours. That's not something I expect from a mystery (not something I expect from any book ever, really), but here's the thing: relatively little of that feeling had to do with the actual mystery itself.
The wonderful thing about this novel is that while it's ostensibly a mystery, it's really a character-driven story dressed up in a mystery's clothing. I fell in love with Ryan and Maddox very soon after meeting them, and watching the ways the investigation affected them was far more compelling than watching the investigation itself. It's not that the murder case wasn't interesting - I'll cop to watching the odd episode of a police procedural now and again, and In the Woods's case was well-done, with all of the clues on the table and the solution complex enough not to be obvious, but not so complex as to be implausible. It's just that Ryan and Maddox are the heart of the story, and they're enough to keep things ticking along during the inevitable part where the investigation stalls out - in fact, the only parts I thought dragged were the parts where the focus was too much on the details of the police work and not enough on the people doing it. Likewise, the murder is essentially solved with almost 100 pages left in the book, but it doesn't feel like French is dragging out the denoument - because while the murder's over, the story wasn't. The ending didn't leave me completely satisfied, but it didn't exactly leave me dissatisfied, either, and I can see that other ways of wrapping things up wouldn't have had the same narrative power... And judging by how I felt when I finished, power is one thing In the Woods has in spades.
Another thing Tana French has in abundance is a flair for wordcraft. It's very rare that I write down quotes from the book I'm reading, but this book made me want to. The only reason I didn't is that I realized by page 20 that there was a paragraph I wanted to copy out verbatim from every page, and that by spending the time copying them down, I was missing out on actually reading them. There's something about French's language that is so beautiful and evocative that you just want to roll around in it, let it sit on your tongue and in your brain, wrap yourself up in it like a pile of warm laundry. I can't quite believe that a story this well crafted and this evocatively written is a first novel - but it is, and I will absolutely be reading the rest of French's work. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Between this and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I'm starting to rethink my aversion to detective mysteries. Although they've got some differences, if you like one, I think you'll like the other, and if you like your stories character-driven, I bet you'll like both, no matter what your favorite genre. (