In the Woods (2007)

I expected more. I read [b:Faithful Place|7093952|Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #3)|Tana French|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1291165900s/7093952.jpg|7350661] first and loved it so much I was excited to go back and read her first two books. I ended up really kind of disliking this one.

What kind of point was the author trying to make by making her protagonist into an ineffectual buffoon at the end? Was the point just to watch this guy implode and screw up his life? Well I guess she succeeded there. But she left him utterly torn down with no light anywhere at the end of his tunnel. How uplifting.

And I ended up severely disliking Cassie too as she showed herself a major grudge holder and a cruel woman as witness by her last act of the book. She knew all along that this guy was imploding and why and yet she just cuts him loose. I know he was nasty to her after sleeping with her but that lasted about a week and she knew as well as him that it was against the rules. Guys do stupid stuff. I guess if they don't apologize within a week then screw them and throw away 2 years of friendship. And not believing her about the psychopath, forgiveness is out of the question too. She's a hard hard woman and I'm not interested in reading her book which comes next.

Let's not even talk about the way that the mystery set up in the prologue gets left dangling. I guess we're supposed to believe that the Horned Lord took them.

I might try book no. 4 when it comes out. IDK. I will encourage people to read Faithful Place though. ( )

The writing in this book is lovely, which earns 3 stars from me. I loved Cassie's character, as well. The plot itself was a bit too long, however, and it wasn't quite the page-turner that it could have been. Also, I wish the mystery from the protagonist's childhood had been solved. It seemed odd to leave it so unresolved. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. It's an interesting mystery and a well written book. The characters are well developed and likable. In fact, I was with the author the whole time, how she chose to unfold the story, introduce us to the cast of nasty characters, even her weird semi-magical sub-plot. All quite fun and fitting.

***SPOILER***

She lost me, however, when the main character accused me of not recognizing one of the characters as the murderer. And this didn't make me angry because I like to know "whodunit" before the reveal, it made me angry because Ms. French did such an amazing job creating a character who is a psychopath that I recognized her the minute I met her. So the story from then on, for me, was really much sadder. When the main character is so easily manipulated by this psychopath, destroying his job, his partnership and really his whole life, I was powerless. But to have him then accuse me of being fooled just as easily as he was? Very off-putting. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, the magical sub-plot went nowhere.

I plan on reading more of her books.

( )

This was the debut for Tana French. I like her writing and her characters but this one plodded along. A bit too much description and too internal. ( )

Dublin Murder Squad detective, Rob Ryan, and his partner/best friend, Cassie Maddox, set out to investigate the murder of a 12-year-old girl when her body is found at an archaeological dig. Red herrings abound, and there are so many intricate layers of possibility that Ryan and his partner quickly become bogged down and find themself on the verge of despair at ever solving the murder. The case has, from the beginning, threatened to be the undoing of Ryan, as it occurred in his own hometown, where years earlier his two best friends disappeared in the nearby wood never to be found and Ryan himself was so traumatized that he has never recovered the memory of what happened that day.
Hardcore police procedurals aren't usually my thing, but I adored this novel from Page One to the end. It took me a little while to sort out the answer to the crime, but even after I did, I was still on the edge of my seat to know how the characters themselves would react to the discovery, which says so much about French's writing. I loved the smart plot, with its interesting twists, and the characters themselves, who had their own, parallel story, which was just as fascinating and engrossing as the mysteries (both the murder and Ryan's past). This is my first French but it will most certainly not be my last. ( )