In the Woods by Tana French

Years ago, I used to devour those quick, cozy, connect-the-dots mysteries, often reading nothing else for months on end.  Then, suddenly, I ground to halt, having grown tired of the often predictable plots and one-dimensional characters. I vowed to only read mysteries that were well written, with intelligent plots and fascinating characters.

I voiced my new resolution and high standards to my bookgroup at the time and was quickly introduced to a range of authors including Deborah Crombie, Elizabeth George, and Peter Robinson  On my own, sans bookgroup, I’ve since discovered Louise Penny, Kate Atkinson, and Susan Hill.   So, my mystery reading days are back in full swing.

Thanks to a friend’s urging, I’ve just discovered a new series and author — Tana French.  I must have been under a rock, because In The Woods (her first in the series) was published in 2007.  I was aware of this book, having seen it over the years.  But, look at that cover — doesn’t it look like a horror filled, psychological thriller?  Shame on me for judging a book by its cover.

In the Woods immediately pulls you in, the terrifically written prologue sets the stage and puts the reader into a carefree summer day in a 1984 suburb of Dublin with three children playing in the woods.

When the children don’t return home, only one child, Adam Robert Ryan, is found catatonic, remembering nothing but his shoes are soaked with blood.  Now twenty years later, Ryan, going only by Adam Ryan, is a detective for the Dublin Murder Squad.  No one knows of his connection with the 1984 incident.   A young girl is found murdered in the very same woods and Ryan finds himself in his old hometown which triggers memories of what happened on that tragic day.

In the Woods is narrated by Detective Ryan and Ms. French has given him a complex voice – taunted by the past, torn up with survivors guilt and the hard, cool viewpoint of a detective.

What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective.  This is my job, and you don’t go into it — or, if you do, you don’t last — without some natural affinity for its priorities and demands.  What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this — two things: I crave truth. And I lie.

Detective Ryan and his partner from the Dublin murder squad, Cassie Maadox, begin their gentle but relentless investigation into the death of young Katy Devlin. Their relationship is intricately developed and compassionate.

How can I ever make you understand Cassie and me?  I would have to take you there, walk you down every path our secret shared geography. The truism says it’s against all the odds for a straight man and woman to be real friends, platonic friends; we rolled thirteen, threw down five aces and ran away giggling.  She was the summertime cousin out of storybooks, the one you taught to swim at some midge-humming lake and pestered with tadpoles down her swimsuit, with whom you practiced first kisses on a heather hillside and laughed about it years later…

Ms. French deftly weaves back and forth between the two plots and it’s fascinating to see if two murders relate or are a mere coincidence. The interrogation scenes are some of the best parts of this debut;

It becomes second nature, interrogation; it seeps into your blood until, no matter how stunned or exhausted or excited your are, this remains unchanged:  the polite professional tone, the clean, relentless march as each answer unfolds into question after new question.

There is rich atmosphere, from the Irish weather;

It was your basic Irish summer day, irritatingly coy, all sun and skidding clouds and jackknifing breeze, ready at any second to make an effortless leap into bucketing rain or blazing sun or both.

To the murdered girl’s autopsy;

I thought of the old superstition that the soul lingers near the body for a few days, bewildered and unsure

In the Woods is atmospheric and engrossing, with richly drawn characters and some lovely detailed writing.  Hard to fathom that this is Ms. French’s first novel.

I read most of the day – couldn’t put it down. The ending does not tie up all the loose ends but I’m hoping the next in this intelligent series will start to resolve some of the questions.

Out of my way folks — got to get to the library for the next one, The Likeness.

 

Warning, the crime(s) are graphic and do involve child rape.

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