Rick Riordan's Reviews > In the Woods

Wow, Tana French can write. I appreciate a well-constructed mystery, and this is certainly one, but it is also one of those genre-transcending books that proves that the whole idea of genre fiction is an artificial construct. My ‘Rick Riordan Presents’ imprint buddies J.C. Cervantes, Rebecca Roanhorse and Rosh Chokshi all recommended this book, and as usual they did not steer me wrong. I was warned that I would want to throw the book across the room when I finished, so I was prepared for anger issues. I was imagining all sorts of twists and turns the novel could take, so actually when the end came, it wasn’t quite as twisted and horrible as I feared, but it certainly was a beautiful, unsettling read.

Our protagonist Rob Ryan is possibly an unreliable narrator. We can’t be sure. When he was a child, he was the sole survivor of a group of children who went missing in the woods near an Irish housing estate. Days later, Rob was found shivering, his shirt cut to pieces, his shoes full of blood and his fingernails clawing into the bark of a tree. The other children were never seen again and are presumed dead. Rob remembers nothing about the experience before being found, but he somehow survived the trauma and grew up to become a detective in the Dublin Murder Squad. He goes by Rob, rather than his childhood name of Adam, so no one will make the connection between the traumatized child and the adult he is today.

Then he and his partner Cassie Maddox get a new case — the brutal murder of a twelve-year-old girl in the same woods where Rob disappeared as a boy. Could the cases be connected? Should Rob come clean to his superiors about his own past? Against Cassie’s instincts, she and Rob continue delving into the case, which quickly becomes personal and perilous for them both. Their partnership will be tested like never before. The suspects in the case are not what they appear. Secrets are folded within other secrets. The novel is dark and wonderful, but will leave you feeling unsettled, looking over your shoulder. If you like a shivery good read with lovely language and deep shadows cast across your soul, this is your jam. I’ve also read French’s second Murder Squad novel, The Likeness, which is just as good.