In the Woods

A Novel

By: Tana French

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Anthony Award winner

Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel winner

Macavity Award winner

The bestselling debut, with over a million copies sold, that launched Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Hunter and “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post).

“Required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting.”—The New York Times

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.

©2007 Tana French (P)2007 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Critic reviews

"[An] ambitious and extraordinary first novel...rank it high." (The Washington Post)

"Part whodunit, part psychological thriller, and wholly successful...French’s plot twists and turns will bamboozle even the most astute reader.... A well-written, expertly plotted thriller." (NPR)

"In the Woods is as creepily imaginative as it gets." (USA Today)

Awful narration, intricate story

Awful narration. Made so I almost could not listen to the book. Narrator pauses for 1 - 2 seconds treating the listener to his breathing and swallowing sounds. And his voice just seems so contrived. I cannot believe this guy gets paid to read books. Intricate story, but not much action. A few disappointments in terms of character arcs. Good book for those interested in an author who takes time to develop a plot.

why???

I couldn't get into this. I stayed on to see how it ended but like other reviews it was very unsatisfying.
Hopeless and moody all around with a main character that just doesn't have a lot of redeeming qualities.

I wanted to like this.....the best part was the narrator. Great smooth voice.

Page Turner

The story is riveting. You won’t be able to put it dow. There are three interwoven mysteries.

Mixed (mild spoilers)

I have VERY mixed feelings about this book.

First, the author is VERY talented. She is a wizard of language. However....

Second, the book often felt overwritten, as though she were a student trying to impress her creative writing instructor. I hope in future novels she will be able to better balance the writing with the story.

Third, once you're a little ways in, the mystery (well, one of them) is fairly easy to spot and unravel. My wife literally listened to five minutes and then predicted, completely accurately, all the major points to follow.

Fourth, as other commenters have noted, the central friendship between the two partners is a pleasure of the book. But when their dynamic changes--and the narrator makes some REALLY stupid mistakes--it doesn't feel organic and my level of frustration--a sign that the book had gotten under my skin--made much of the rest of the novel a bitter pill to swallow (apologies for trite metaphors). However,

Fifth, the final parts of the novel--about the last 2.5 hours--flew by and were compelling. At the risk of being late to work (and in the spirit of Rob!), I stayed in my car this morning to listen to the final few minutes. So, well done to the author there.

Final thoughts: A talented writer, but not yet a Le Carre.

Tough to finish

The main character, detective Ryan, is a weak man and his thoughts and actions makes you want to tell him so several times. The subtle hint of mythical monsters is an underdeveloped point that should have been eliminated by the editor before it went to print. Overall, I am sad I devoted my time to this meh story.

great story

Nicely done. great narration. interesting story. great character development. this kept my interest and wanting more. I really enjoyed it.

It was a longer book than I expected, but it used that space well for the most part.

The romance was okay though a bit problematic since the main character was annoying from time to time about things that really didn't matter and it never really got resolved, Cassie just ended up engaged to someone else and it was incredibly unsatisfying.

Spoilers That Will Help...Do Not Read

Ok, now that I have your attention. I am writing this so it will save you a lot of time and money. I do not like spending 20 bucks on a book that has no discernable ending. We have two crimes that may or may not be linked, and a narrator who may or may not have been involved with at least one of them, and then we find out at the end....nothing.
Yes, I am one of these people who needs the plot nicely tied up at the end (bow not necessary). Tell the story or don't, and don't waste my time getting me all het up that this is going to be great...this is going to be such a huge shocker that I am sticking with the cliched characters and silly banter just to find out.....nothing.
I hate when authors do this, and I do not understand why people feel that this cop-out style of writing is acceptible. I want to know what happens at the end. That's why I read the book!

Loooong

I really like the baseline story of this book, but my goodness, it was painfully long.. About 3 or 4 hours longer than it had to be. I feel like the book would've been more of a page turner, concentrated with the good stuff w/o the meaningless extraneous fluff. Also, after investing soooo much time, it didn't resolve like you'd think it would. I can't get those 20+ hours of listening back :(

frustrated

I very much enjoyed the writing and the plot. I progressed through the book with interest. I figured out the current day culprit early on, but was rewarded to find that I was correct in my assumptions, so that was OK. The major problem for me was that I got hooked on the earlier mystery and was really looking forward to the solution to that crime, which never came. How can an author present a puzzle like that and end his book with no solution? Since there was really no correlation between the two, I wonder if the earlier mystery was even relevent, other than fleshing out the main character.