I used to be one of those readers who stuck only to the classics and didn’t bother with anything written after, say, 1950. But in recent years I’ve become more accepting of contemporary works, and have thoroughly enjoyed many modern titles.
One problem, however, is that I’m not familiar enough with current authors to make smart selections at the bookstore. That’s why whenever I need something new to read, I usually rely on “Best of” lists to help me make my choices — which is how I discovered In the Woods by Tana French. In the Woods was the 2008 Edgar Award winner for Best First Novel by an American Author, and received many positive reviews, so I was looking forward to digging in. Unfortunately, after a solid beginning, the novel petered out into mediocrity.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Det. Rob Ryan is a 32-year-old detective on the Murder squad in Knocknaree, Ireland. He and his partner Cassie Maddox are the best of friends, and have a truly platonic relationship that seemingly flouts the old notion about men and women not being able to sustain nonsexual friendships.
Their professional and personal lives are thrown into turmoil when the body of 12-year-old Katy Devlin is found in the woods near a relatively safe part of town. Katy had been brutally beaten to death, with half her skull crushed in. The killer also made it look like Katy had been raped, which leads Rob, Cassie, and their other partner Sam to believe that this might be the work of a pedophile.
To complicate matters, the crime took place in the exact same location where two kids disappeared from Knocknaree 20 years earlier. Det. Ryan was part of that case as well, as the two kids had been his best friends. In fact, “Adam”, as he was known back then, was with his friends when they disappeared, but he was so traumatized by whatever happened that he couldn’t remember anything about it. He was found with blood-soaked shoes and a ripped t-shirt; the bodies of his friends were never recovered.
During the course of Det. Ryan’s investigation into the Devlin affair, bits and pieces of the events of 20 years ago start coming back to him, leading to a steadily declining mental state that affects his job and his friendship with Cassie. The team makes frustratingly slow progress in tracking down Katy’s killer, which serves to exacerbate Rob’s increasingly fragile psyche.
Eventually, the team does learn who killed Katy and why, thanks to some insight that Rob was able to provide. However, he made so many missteps along the way that by the end of the case, he finds himself off the Murder squad and alienated from Cassie forever.
My Reaction: In the Woods started out on a terrific track. Rob and Cassie were great characters, and I loved their constant banter. Tana French did a wonderful job of portraying them as best friends, which made the subsequent deterioration of their relationship very difficult to take.
The crime itself was interesting at the beginning as well. French did an adequate job of setting up the mystery, with the sort of misdirections necessary for a decent murder mystery. I wish she had highlighted a few more viable suspects, though, as that would have made Act II a bit more exciting. As it was, since Rob, Cassie, and Sam had no leads to follow, the reader was left to suffer in inaction with them. Booooring!
From the other reviews I’ve read of this book, the ending is by far the most controversial part. Some people love it, while others absolutely hated it. I fall into the latter category. I just felt completely cheated by the fact that the author chose not to solve the Adam Ryan mystery after spending so much time building it up. I realize that not every murder case is solved in real life, but I was always under the impression that mystery writers have unspoken agreements with their readers. Stick with me for 400 pages, and I’ll present you with a solution by the end. That’s what we expect, right?
But French doesn’t live up to that agreement. Sure, she gives the solution to the less interesting case (a very unsatisfactory solution, by the way. Do you mean to tell me that a 17-year-old would have her 12-year-old sister killed just because she was annoying???), but doesn’t bother resolving Det. Ryan’s issues for readers. The closest she came was to insinuate that there were perhaps supernatural forces at play (large birdlike creature, strange noises) back then, which simply left me scratching my head. Was that supposed to be a nod to Stephen King or what?
Overall, I thought In the Woods turned out to be a very average book. The beginning of the novel quickly draws you in, but you’ll likely be bored from the halfway point to the end, forcing yourself to finish in the hopes of getting a resolution that never comes. Read at your own risk!
I know that TV writers have to take shortcuts in order to fit an entire story into 42 minutes (for the average primetime drama), and most of the time I’m perfectly willing to overlook the storytelling gaps. But one convention that bugs me to no end is the way writers would have us believe that characters don’t speak to each other on long car rides. Let me explain.