Book 11: In the Woods

I finished re-reading In the Woods by Tana French yesterday. This is French's first novel, and it features Cassie Maddox as the partner and best friend of our narrator, (Adam) Rob Ryan.




When Adam Ryan was a kid, two of his friends disappeared forever, leaving him behind, bloody and terrified in The Woods. He forgot what happened and never recovered the memories. His friends were never recovered, alive or dead. No one in his modern-day life knows this about him, except for his parents and Cassie. He goes by his middle name and his parents had moved to a different area of Ireland, so he's not easily connected to the old case.

Now, as a detective, he is inappropriately working on a modern murder case that may be related to his own unsolved case. Of course things do not go well.

Great things:
1. Twin little girls, one of whom has become slow-witted.
2. Manipulation on lots of levels, from different characters, and for different reasons.
3. Layers of deceit.
4. The self-awareness of doing the wrong thing but going ahead with it anyway.
5. French is a very engaging, engrossing writer. I wanted to devour the whole book from the very first chapter.

Annoying:
1. Same as in The Likeness: please don't use American pop culture references in an Irish book. It pulls me out of the world of the story. It also makes the book much less timeless. It is already dated because of these details.
2. I was disappointed that both cases were not solved. Of course, I might have been disappointed if they were both tidily wrapped up, too.