REVIEW: IN THE WOODS by Tana French

Title: In the Woods
Author: Tana French
Series: Dublin Murder Squad #1
Genres: Mystery, Crime, Thriller
Publisher: Viking
Source: Audiobook

Pages: 429

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BLURB: A gripping thriller and New York Times bestseller from the acclaimed author of Broken Harbor and The Secret Place

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.
Richly atmospheric and stunning in its complexity, In the Woods is utterly convincing and surprising to the end.

Look for French's new mystery, The Trespasser, for more of the Dublin Murder Squad.

I have heard of this author from Lindsay Ray and she really loved so I added this book to my list and then eventually decided to pick it up.

THE WORLD: Nothing fancy really, juts a world like we know it.

CHARACTERS: Okay so this book concentrates on the male detective Rob Ryan. Basically in the beginning we are told of the story of a boy found covered in blood while his two friends go missing. The boy has no memory at all. And then we skip ahead for about 30 years and now this boy is our detective investigating a murder of a girl in the same town he grew up. The only thing is that nobody except for his partner knows of Rob's past. So in a way he is investigating the murder of a local girl and at the same time trying to connect this to his missing friends and solve that crime as well. Frankly, I liked Rob, he is pretty simple but not in annoying way. He has his bad days don't get me from but it kinda makes me to say don't we all? His partner is named Cassie and she is a very loyal friend as well as a partner. I really liked Rob's and her relationship. They are not in love, they aren't even sleeping together, well almost. But anyways, I think it was pretty nice representation of male and female friendship. There are of course other characters, now I wont name them but just let me tell you that whoever did the crime was actually pretty well done, I have read some biographies of serial killers and psychopaths and this was just on point.

LOVE: There actually is a little bit of love in this book but it is not concentrated on. Frankly, I really liked how this all was reflected on later like post our time of action.

PLUS: So really there are two crimes to be solves in this book which is pretty cool because you don't really know what is true and what is not as well as what is connected and what is not. And frankly what Tana French did with the ending... hmm I think it was pretty brilliant.

MINUS: For some reason this book felt really long. Like the story was actually interesting and you always wanted to know more but at some point I started to feel like its going on way too long. I must also say that it was not longer than usual when it comes to pages so I am not sure what really happened. 

OVERALL: It was an interesting read but I am not sure about the future, I was juts not really blown away. I highly recommend this author to anybody with interest in crime, that's for sure. But about myself I still have to give it time before I decide if I go on with the series.

What do you guys think about IN THE WOODS?