If Trees Could Talk, They Wood.
In the Woods by Tana French
In the Woods by Tana French is the first book in the Dublin Murder Squad series.
Here’s what online retailers have to say about it:
“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, stunning in its complexity, and utterly convincing and surprising to the end, In the Woods is sure to enthrall fans of Mystic River and The Lovely Bones.”
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I have lots of thoughts about this story. The first one is that I have rarely read a book with better-drawn characters. Each of the main and secondary characters is equisitely complex and the reader comes away feeling like they’ve been given a glimpse into the psyche of each one. The intricate dance that encompasses the relationships between and among all of them is well-plotted and precise.
Our narrator, Detective Rob Ryan, is a troubled soul and there’s good reason for that (as you read in the blurb above). Together with his partner, Cassie Maddox, he is trying to ferret out the identity of a child killer. This alone would be a lot for anyone, but Ryan is also trying to understand and reconcile the events that changed his life twenty years ago. Memories are fleeting and ethereal—images in his mind that flutter just beyond his reach. But he’s convinced his experiences have a connection to this recent murder.
This is not a book for the faint-hearted. It was originally published in 2007 with no mention of the more greusome details, but if it were published today it would probably come with a trigger warning. With that being said, its subject matter is tame compared to a lot of other books out there. But it did push me to the cusp of what I’m willing to read.
And now we get to the most interesting part of the book: the end. I’m not going to give away a single thing, but let me just say that there’s controversy surrounding it and I can see why.
I will say that upon finishing it, I immediately went online to see what other readers thought. And there are some very intriguing theories out there, some of which I agree with and some I don’t.
In sum, this was a fascinating read that I didn’t want to lay aside for things like food and sleep. It’s well-paced, exciting, and thought-provoking.
If the subject matter doesn’t put you off, I encourage you to read In the Woods yourself and make your own decisions. And if you do read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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See you next time,
Amy
