In the Woods | Tana French | Riveting from start to finish!

In the Woods | Tana French | A Stunning Debut

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In the Woods

	In the Woods Tana French Penguin (Non-Classics), 2008 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 219 reviews view larger image
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Riveting from start to finish!

As a child, Rob Ryan may have witnessed the murder of his friends. He returned home from the nearby woods, bloodied, remembering nothing. His friends never returned. Rob and his family soon moved away to escape the stain of the event, forever marked upon them via small town gossip. Now an adult, Rob still has no memory of what happened that day. He works as a police detective, and at the outset of this book, is assigned to investigate the murder of a child... one that may or may not be tied to the traumatic events of his childhood.

His detective partner and close companion Cassie is his only true confidant, and their relationship is one of the most interesting and involving parts of this book. Her character deserves more, and gets more, in French's next book The Likeness: A Novel.

I could not put the book down! This made for a lack of sleep, but an excellent reading experience. Seldom do I react out loud while reading a book -- but I did with this one. ("Oh god no!" ...followed by an embarrassed look around to see if anyone heard me). Yes, this book made me into the literary equivalent of that annoying guy who yells at the screen in the movie theater.

If you read other reviews, you will see people complaining that the book was a big letdown because it promised resolutions that it did not deliver. This is technically true, but I don't want to get too far into that because I consider it a spoiler. Let's just say that I was entirely satisfied at the end of the book, and then a day later, I shook my head, realizing that I didn't ever find out the things I expected to find out at the outset. French changes things up on us as we read along. And that was OK with me.

Take a chance on this one. And don't be embarrassed if you shout at the book once or twice. It's OK. I understand.

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A Stunning Debut

The biggest complaint people seem to have with this novel is a lack of resolution to one of the two "central" mysteries. I'd like to right off the bat say that I had no problem with this "unsatisfying" ending. It would have perhaps been too clean-cut and I think it may have in fact ruined an otherwise excellent debut novel.
This book is elevated from being a simple police procedural by two things - one, French's dalliances with the supernatural (or perhaps more aptly, the Gothic tradition) and two, the beautiful prose. Yes, the middle drags a little and the political subplot is a snoozer (the reason this doesn't get a full five stars) but those faults are small enough that they don't ruin the novel.
French creates a vivid and slightly surreal Ireland, something that manages to evoke echoes of Dickens and Conan Doyle's Londons while remaining firmly rooted in modern times. Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox are vivid characters and Ryan's not-quite-trustworthy narration keeps the reader thinking.

I'm somewhat surprised that more comments haven't been made about French using Gothic influences - and I don't mean black eyeliner and spikes. I mean traits that authors like Poe and Shelley and Jackson used to raise the hairs on your neck just a little. The strange circumstances surrounding Ryan's friends' deaths, the not-quite-right "perfect" family, the setting of the woods and all of the spooky things that can be conjured within, the duality of the "repeat" murders... "The Likeness" - the EXCELLENT sequel - continues with this thread, using the idea of a double as well as the creaky old house and the not-quite-right "perfect" family.

This is a strong debut from a voice bound to remain powerful in fiction for the coming years.

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great series debut

Without going into the plot, Ms. French's book was really quite good, considering this is her debut novel. I don't often say that about many people's first work; most of the time I feel like the writer's second novel will be more fully fleshed out and more satisfying to me as a reader. I picked this book up this morning and did not move until I had finished it. I just could not put it down, it was that good. I liked the characters, the twists and turns that the story took, the police procedural aspect of it, and I especially liked the fact (unlike some authors) that Ms. French stuck to the point and didn't wander off with more subplots or add more murders in her story -- I get so annoyed when that happens. I must say that I was surprised when I discovered reader reviews in which people felt cheated at the end...I thought I must have looked up the wrong book, because I was perfectly okay with how this book ended. I mean, there are some things in life that simply have no resolution -- and in real life, we don't have the luxury of a deus ex machina to help us through our trials and tribulations, and in real life police work, sometimes the answers or breaks needed to solve a case just simply do not exist.

Personally, I really enjoyed this novel and I'm a tough mystery novel reader. If I don't like it, the author doesn't make his or her reappearance on any of my shelves. I won't be saying that about Tana French. Her next novel (and probably any other one she writes based on these characters) is guaranteed a spot.

This book would appeal to people who enjoy reading crime fiction set in Ireland, as well as to those people who like a very good mystery story. However, if you're going to get irate that the author does not package things in neat little bows to your satisfaction (thereby imitating real life) you may want to move on to something where everything's spelled out. I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it

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