In the Woods by Tana French

After having already read and very favorably reviewed two of Tana French’s later books, I decided to read her first novel which won her awards (including the Edgar) and launched her career. In The Woods is an excellent story with three main plot lines. The first plot has to do with the current day murder of 12-year-old Katy Devlin, a gifted ballet student who was about to leave home in Knocknaree, Ireland, a few miles outside of Dublin, to join the Royal Ballet School. The second had to do with an old murder, one that happened 22 years earlier. Detective Rob Ryan was the victim of a crime when he was 12 years old which happened at precisely the same location as Katy’s murder. He was playing with his two best friends in the woods near their home when his two friends ended up missing. No trace of them was ever found and he was found frozen against a tree, in a catatonic state, with no memory of what had happened. It was a famous case in Ireland which went unsolved. Rob was sent away to boarding school, his parents moved away from Knocknaree, and he began using his middle name instead of his first name by which he had previously been known. He eventually sought a career in the police force and was a detective when he and his partner drew the case of Katy Devlin. The third plot had to do with Ryan’s relationship with his partner, Cassie Maddox, a platonic relationship. They were great friends, spent all their time together, were very successful as a detective team, and no one could understand how a sexual intimacy had never developed between them.

From the outset of the book, it was clear that the second and third plots had to reach some kind of resolution because of the tension they created. Rob had no memories before the age of 12, but suddenly he was spending a lot of time right back where his trauma and loss had occurred. Some memory of the tragedy had to come back to him, didn’t it? The old and new cases were possibly connected, so that seemed to mean he had to remember something. As an interested party, he should not have been involved as a detective in the new case, but his real identity was only known to Cassie. And, as his own emotional turmoil evolved as he investigated this new murder, so did his relationship with Cassie. The only question was how French was going to play out those plot lines and how she would keep the tension in them alive.

Meanwhile, the first them, the murder of Katy was carefully developed, and multiple subplots supported all three themes. French’s character development was skillful and she has a good understanding of psychopaths, which became an important theme, as well. This book took off from the opening lines of the prologue which provided the most beautiful descriptive prose that you’ll read anywhere. It is a cliché, but this story was spellbinding. I’m going to have to make room for French in my power rotation of authors. If murder mysteries are your genre, then this well-conceived and well-written book is for you. It certainly deserved all of the awards it received.


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