Tana French’s In the Woods, the first novel of her Dublin Murder Squad series, did quite well for itself when it was published in 2007, even going on to win the 2008 Edgar Award for best first novel. The series, now totaling six books, is still popular with readers of mystery and suspense fiction, but French hasn’t added to it since 2016. Rather, her last two novels, The Witch Elm (2018) and The Searcher (2020), are both standalone titles.
In the Woods focuses on the work and personal relationship of two Dublin murder investigators, Rob (the novel’s narrator) and Cassie, who have developed the kind of partnership that makes them much more effective as a team than either of them would be if they worked alone or with a different partner. They are so good at what they do together that they are allowed to partner-up despite the relative lack of experience that either of them have. But that doesn’t stop the other cops from talking about their “relationship” or their boss being nervous about having two such young cops work together.
Rob is a cop with a past he has kept hidden from everyone other than Cassie: just over twenty years earlier, he had been one of three victims of an unsolved crime much like the ones he investigates now for the Dublin Murder Squad. As they often did, Rob and his two twelve-year-old friends, a boy and a girl, had gone into the woods to play. Hours later, Rob was found in blood-filled shoes clinging to a tree in shock; his two friends were never seen again, and the mystery of their disappearance is yet to be solved. And now, Detective Rob Ryan and his partner are investigating the murder of a twelve-year-old girl whose body has been found just a stone’s throw from the woods into which Rob’s friends disappeared all those years ago.
Shockingly, it appears that the two cases may be linked in one of several possible ways, so Rob knows that if he finally reveals his past he will immediately be yanked from the case, and maybe even fired by the police. Because that is the last thing that Rob wants to see happen, he decides to keep his mouth shut, and because Cassie values their friendship so highly, she plays right along with his game. The problem is that even though Rob has no memory at all of what happened to him and his friends in the woods that day, he is reluctant to interview certain witnesses who may still recognize him from those days, limiting his investigatory effectiveness.
And then, as memory fragments start to come back to Rob little by little, his emotions begin to impact his decisions so negatively that the whole investigation is placed in jeopardy.
In the Woods is a solid police procedural, but it is more about the deep Platonic relationship between Rob and Cassie and what happens to that relationship when Rob begins to crack. The emotional stress that Rob and Cassie experience as their personal loyalties are tested is what makes the novel so deservedly stand out from the crowd the way that it does. Along the way, however, Rob Ryan morphs from an entirely sympathetic character to an annoying whiner of a character who spends much of his narration making excuses for his own behavior. And, frankly, he becomes as personally annoying as the behavior he is trying to excuse. If that is what Tana French was going for, she hit a bases-loaded home run; if not, she swung and missed.
Bottom Line: In the Woods, in the end, left me feeling frustrated by having had to spend so much time with a character as childishly irritating as Rob Ryan is. But my main complaint is that, after almost 500 pages of reading, only one of the key mysteries in the book gets solved and I’m left wondering about the other one. Thankfully - at least as far as I can tell — the next book in the Dublin Murder Squad series features Cassie, not Rob Ryan. Here’s hoping that Rob has been allowed to walk permanently into the sunset.
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| Tana French |
This was the first Tana French book I ever read, and it completely drew me in, and I was so invested...and then that ending! Not getting the answers I wanted was frustrating. I walked around in a bookish funk for a few days after this one, but I've never forgotten it. Her next book, The Likeness, was a more satisfying read for me.
ReplyDeleteI do like the settings of French's books a lot, and I generally enjoy her style other than sometimes thinking that she's just going on a bit too long before moving the plot along to the next step. But leaving a mystery unsolved in a novel, especially one this long, is irritating to me. I'm not sure that's playing fair.
DeleteI wasn't happy about it, that's for sure.
DeleteYour post made me research when I read this and what I thought as it wasn't familiar. It was 2013 so I don't feel too bad and I rated it 4/5. I don't think I ever read the next 2 - don't see reviews but I did read and review Broken Harbor. (I've got to get a better system). Sorry you felt frustrated after the lengthy read.
ReplyDeleteDiane, I haven't run into this kind of thing often - where a major thread is just left dangling - unless the author plans to begin the next book in a series at that point. And because, from what I understand, that's not the case here, that really frustrates me. I enjoyed her "The Searcher" a lot more, and I plan to read more of her novels (I have two unread ones on the shelf now, in fact), but I'm surprised that this one won the Edgar.
DeleteIt's quite a few years since I read this but I know I found it very readable. I believe I read it as borderline supernatural crime as there was an element of weirdness about it, especially at the end. Oddly, I never did read any more in the series but would like to read her standalones.
ReplyDeleteIt is very readable; there is no doubt that French can write and she does it well. I'm kind of happy that I didn't discover this one when it was first published, though, because between that whining main character and her failure to give all the answers her readers deserved, I may have written her off.
DeleteThis was my first book by French, and I liked it lot. I loved the next one that featured Cassie, the way French used a character from a previous book as she continued the series.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy that Cassie is the character carried forward into the next book; if it had been that Ryan wimp, I would not have bothered reading this next one. I have book two on the shelf right now, and I plan to read it sometime in the next several weeks. French is good enough a writer that I want to read more, no doubt about it.
DeleteHi Sam, I have this book waiting to be read in my kindle abd you do a very good job of reviewing it. The plot sounds fascinating but if the ending doesn't tie up the knots that's a problem. Its interesting with characters like Rob who get on our nerves. Sometimes we just want to say goodbye to them at the end of the book But then there are characters we love to loathe and I just finished reading a book like that, Ultimate Prizes by Susan Howatch. The narrator is deeply unpleasant and yet I can't wait for book 4 in the series to see if he gets his comeuppance!
ReplyDeleteKathy, you're absolutely right: it can be great fun to loathe some characters, even to the point of looking forward to the next time you can loathe them. I was irritated by this character so much, I think, because he spent so much time (and he's the only narrator of the book) making excuses for his weaknesses and bad choices because even he knew how pathetic he was.
DeleteWhat made it worse about not solving both the cases is that I was certain who the brains behind the crime was almost as soon as the character first appeared in the story. So then, I looked forward to the cold case answers - and French just let that thread fizzle out.
I'm sitting out on the porch compared to most readers I've come across. I read this when it first came out, and I was underwhelmed to the point where I've not read another of French's books. Different strokes, as they say. :-)
ReplyDeleteCathy, the standalone (The Searcher) I read first of her books is excellent, IMO. If this had been the first French book I had read, it may very well have been the last.
DeleteI do like the concept of the Dublin Murder Squad and French's Irish settings, but I'm hoping her decision not to fully resolve the plot lines in this one was a mistake she learned from and won't repeat. But considering how well-rewarded she was by the novel, I doubt that's the case. One more time, though, that she pulls this stunt, and I'm probably done.
I know I read this one, but had to go back and check goodreads. Turns out I listened back in 2013, gave it 4 stars, and the audio experience was a good one. I did mention that one of the plot lines was not resolved, but it must not have bothered me much. Thought I would continue the series, but have never gone back for more....
ReplyDeleteI guess it bothered me a lot because the particular plot she left dangling was a major part of the "hook" French used to get readers to pick up the book in the first place. It was so central to the experience of the central character/narrator that I looked forward to the solution right up to the last page...finally, just hoping for one of those little one-sentence hints that some writers resort to when they run out of steam.
DeleteYou'll be happy to know that each of the books in the Dublin Murder Squad series stars a different detective, so if one annoys you, you can just move on to another one! I'm sorry IN THE WOODS turned out to be frustrating for you. It's been so long since I read it that I really don't remember many of its particulars. I do really like French, though.
ReplyDeleteI did find this first Murder Squad book to be frustrating, Susan, but it's not turned me off the author. I think French is very good - really enjoyed her latest book - so I'll be reading the second Murder Squad book soon...and I already have a copy of her first standalone, too, so I'll be reading that for sure.
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