The Book: In The Woods, by Tana French

The Story: Adam Ryan and two of his friends disappear into the woods in a small Ireland town about 20-something years ago.  The two friends are never found.  Adam is found, but with shoes full of blood and absolutely no memory of what happened.

Fast-forward 20ish years.  Adam Ryan is now “Rob” Ryan and he is a detective.  His partner’s name is Cassie and they are BFF. Best partners in the world.  They are the only ones around when a murder is called in in the same town that Rob grew up in.  Turns out, the girl that was murdered was murdered in the same woods that Rob’s friends disappeared in when he was a kid.  Rob and Cassie decide not to tell their superiors and instead, investigate away while Rob has a miniature mental breakdown.

There is a piece of evidence found at the scene that ties the two murders together and people start to think that there is a child serial killer on the loose.  The town kind of freaks out and there is a lot of pressure on Rob and Cassie to get this figured out.  There are a lot of leads to follow: local neighbor hood guy,  her parents, political revenge against her father, a stranger passing through, some pervert… and each of these ideas are explored pretty throughly.

I’m not going to tell you anymore.  It is a mystery, for crying out loud.  Suffice to say it gets pretty tangled and pretty crazy before it levels out again.  Quite the ride.

What I Thought: I read this for a book club meeting that will happen on Tuesday.  I really cannot wait to talk this one through because it had so many loops and so many areas for discussion.

Sometimes I feel like mystery novels in general are just kind of crap.  The characters are flat and cardboard and the situations are totally predictable.  I admit, I tend to turn my nose up at the “mystery” section.  This one, not so much.  It was actually well written.  Both Rob and Cassie had a lot of emotional depth and good back stories. While I didn’t find Rob likable at all (he was actually kind of a prick), I did think that he was well developed and I kind of got where he was coming from.  As for being predictable: maybe I’m just stupid, but I didn’t see any of it coming.

I have to say, there were some plot holes that I simply could not over look, although I don’t want to ruin the story for you.  I will tell you, too, that the end doesn’t get tied up all pretty and nice.  While reading a mystery book, though, you kind of hope for that.  Maybe she’s leaving herself open for a sequel? I’m not sure.

(After writing this, I realized that I had read the “sequel” without realizing it.  And, not to burst any bubbles, but no ends get tied up in that one either.  Maybe a trilogy?)

One thing that cracked me up when I first got into this book is that I didn’t realize that it was written by an Irish writer.  Every time it mentioned search crews going into the woods with torches, I kind of rolled my eyes. Torches? Really?  All of a sudden I got it.  They mean flashlights.  Ha.

Conclusion: A well written mystery novel, although a bit anticlimactic in the end. A good read and worth the time, for sure.