In the Woods

I picked this book up on a whim, started reading, and couldn't put it down. I was absolutely enthralled for the first 99% of the book. I stayed up way past my normal bedtime to finish it and when I did, I thought maybe my book was missing a few pages.

This could have easily been the best book I've read all year, except there was no fulfillment at the end, just frustration,

I'm surprised how many people who reviewed this book are planning to purchase French's next book. I feel like she still owes me the remainder of the first one.

Tana French's debut novel, 'In The Woods' left me with more questions than solved mysteries.

The book follows detective Adam Ryan as he works on a child murder case. The murder takes place in the childhood home town of detective Ryan. We also find out that Ryan's past is an unsolved mystery which seems to be connected to the current case.

As with some mysteries, the center portion of the book drags a bit. We get a lot of investigation and dead end leads. The way the suspect is found was abrupt. I liked the tie-in and motivation of the killer, but the ending left me longing for more closure.

We had a murderer who gets convicted, but the victim does not get full justice. Also, the long unsolved mystery that helps move the story along ends up a bust in the plot.

This book starts with three children going into a woods by their little community in Ireland. They go missing and when the search party goes after them they only find one child, gripping a tree for his life and his shoes full of blood. No sign of the other children is found.

Flash forward twenty years, and the surviving boy, Adam Robert Ryan, is using his middle name and working as a detective. In the same community that he grew up in, a twelve year old girl is found murdered. Robert and his partner Cassie are then supposed to discover the killer and there is a thought that this case and the one twenty years ago could be connected.

I was not thrilled with the writing style. There were times that it dragged, too much detail, and too much whining from Robert. The relationship with Cassie was great until he sleeps with her, then he has to get very weird about it.

I will say the mystery of who killed the twelve year old girl was good. But, the idea of what happened to Robert when he was a child, used to draw people to buy the book in the first place, gets left on the back burner and never solved. What was the point of having that in the story if nothing was even going to be done with it? That fact just made the book a huge let down.

In the Woods is ostensibly just a mystery revolving around the disappearances and gruesome murders of a handful of children in Ireland. In reality, it's the story of surviving and coming to terms with the past.

Despite it's heavy subject matter, French keeps the writing from veering into a dark and overwrought place with a smattering of lighthearted pop culture references and, most of all the dynamic relationship between the main characters.

What did I just read? I bought the book because it sounded interesting. How do you write a mystery/suspense/whatever this is supposed to be and not solve the main riddle of the story? What happened to Peter and Jaime? What were those noises in the woods? The book ended with too many lingering questions. I shut the book with my mind unsatisfied. I can't really say if that has ever happened. The book began with a good bit of promise, but just didn't deliver. Better luck next time.