SageChimpSageChimp
by Tana French
A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspenseAs 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, stunning in its complexity, and utterly convincing and surprising to the end, In the Woods is sure to enthrall fans of Mystic River and The Lovely Bones.
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As a longtime Law & Order aficionado, please believe that I am not easily impressed by police procedurals. Tana French's In the Woods was a spectacular combination of realism, casual (and dark) humor), and a description of a friendship that I painfully envy. When Detective Rob Ryan was a child, he went into the woods with two of his friends. The two friends were never seen again and young Rob (who used his real name of Adam back then) was found bloody, traumatized, but relatively uninjured. His memory of what had happened was completely swallowed by his young mind and his parents, trying to be helpful, sent him away to an English boarding school.<br/><br/>Now an adult with a posh English accent, Rob is a detective in the prestigious murder squad with the Dublin Police and there has been a new murder. The murder of a child... in his old hometown. There are eerie echoes to the crime twenty years ago, but don't get your hopes up. You never find out what happened to Rob's childhood friends. But don't be dissuaded by that fact.<br/><br/>What you do find out is what happens to little children who experience trauma... when they grow up without dealing with the trauma. You can shove it down as deep as you like, but it always comes back up in terrible ways, especially if you're a murder detective. We do find out what happened to the latest little girl to die in the small Irish town, and we watch in fascinated horror as the murderer presents themselves fairly early on, while Rob simply can't see it. We all have our blind spots and Rob's are a doozy.<br/><br/>I loved this book and if I had a complaint, it was that the narrator didn't bother doing an Irish accent for the Irish characters... which was every character except Rob. Irish people have a particular way of speaking, one not done proper justice with an English accent. But like I said, don't be dissuaded. Read this book at your earliest convenience.<br/><br/>“What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this -- two things: I crave truth. And I lie. ” --Rob (Adam) Ryan