In the Woods [Paperback]

This is Tana French's first novel, published in 2007, and also the first in a series involving detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox. I bought it in 2011 having discovered this author by way of her third novel Faithful Place, which I thought was outstanding - one of the very best novels I read last year. Sadly and surprisingly, I didn't come away from In The Woods with quite such positive memories.

Dublin Detective Rob Ryan works with smart, tough Cassie Maddox, they are best friends as well as partners, and when the body of a young girl is found at the site of an archaeological dig, they are assigned to the case. When they reach the crime scene, Rob realises it is the exact site of his secret childhood trauma twenty years earlier - when he was twelve, Rob (known as Adam back then) had been playing in the woods one sunny day when his two best friends disappeared and were never seen again. Rob has no memory of the event however, although when a hairclip is found at the crime scene he recognises it as having belonged to his friend - and wonders if there could be a connection between that old, unsolved crime and this latest one. Knowing that he would be thrown off the case if his past were to be revealed, Rob takes a fateful decision to keep quiet. He and Cassie are investigating the murder of Katy Devlin, but they both hope that they might also solve the twenty-year-old mystery of the woods.

I was sure I going to like this, I had previous experience of the author with the same characters, and the novel has won high-profile acclaim by way of Anthony, Barry, Edgar and Macavity Awards (that's four separate awards by the way!). But I found it desperately ordinary and lacking the specialness that I found in French's third novel. It was actually boring in places and I was tempted to skip paragraphs here and there. The key element that was missing, and which was so abundantly rich in Faithful Place, was the high quality dialogue and the enhancement of character that it would have been expected to create. But it just wasn't there. It's quite good, yes, but actually nothing special and had I read this first I might never have discovered the pleasures of Faithful Place. A real surprise and disappointment, this, but I have pre-ordered the author's 2012 offering Broken Harbour (it comes out in June) because she most definitely has a talent that I like - it's just that it wasn't on display, at least not for me, in her debut novel. I have to put this down as an 'okay read, nothing wrong with it but nothing remarkable either'. I would of course urge anyone who hasn't read it yet to try Faithful Place, because I rate that very highly.

In fairness the plot to the story is quite good, but the real problem is the ending. After some pages of thrills this book ends with a horrendous anticlimax. It feels as though the book is building up to a grand finale of fireworks and acrobatics, and all we see is a meagre party popper.
The other problem is the excess of description. Sometimes I found myself skipping pages thinking 'What is the need for all this rambling?' I had to force myself to trudge through the endless description of unnecessary ramble. In honesty, borrow this book from your local library and not make my mistake of buying it on first sight.

First novel I've read by Tana French and I can't wait to read more. Primarily a crime novel this book starts with the discovery of a young girls body at an archeological dig in Knocknaree. As the central characters Detectives Ryan and Maddox investigation begins the storyline also cleverly intertwines memories of events from years previous when Detective Ryan was a 12 year old growing up in the small community of Knocknaree, idyllic summer memories of times spent playing in the woods with his best friends Jamie and Peter that were marred by a terrible tragedy

The main characters of Ryan and Maddox were great, they made a great team and their characters were developed well, making them believable. Their relationship is central to the storyline and the bond between them is well written, the jibes and subtle humour between them true to life. There's just the right amount of tension in the storyline and I found the scenes in the woods sufficiently creepy to unsettle me. If you like good character development then this is a book I'd definitely recommend. Other reviewers were disappointed with the non-conclusive ending and whilst I agree it would have been nice to have everything nicely tied up, it didn't annoy me sufficiently to stop me thinking it was a great read and I can't wait to start her second novel.

With 91 current reviews there's very little I can add other than to say that in my opinion this really is an excellent book and well worth reading. I purchased the authors second novel The Likeness midway through reading this one and can't wait to get started on it, from me you can't get a better recommendation than that.