In the Woods

I’m reading In the Woods by Tana French. I read French’s most recent novel, The Likeness (see reviews I & II), over the summer and really enjoyed it. The Likeness is actually a sort-of-sequel to In the Woods, as it focuses on one of the characters from this book, but you don’t have to read one or the other in any certain order.

In the Woods is about the murder of a 12-year-old girl in the outskirts of Dublin. Detective Rob Ryan has an interesting connection to this case, as when he was 12, two of his friends disappeared in the same woods and he was left alone, covered in blood with no memory of what happened. Whether the two cases, 20 years apart, are connected has yet to be discovered, but I’m guessing they probably are. With his partner, Cassie Maddox (the main subject of The Likeness), Ryan looks to solve this country-side murder mystery.

I really enjoy French’s writing. While to some her books may seem a little long and over detailed – she spends a lot of time inside the head of her main characters – the descriptions and thoughts she illustrates are very elaborate and interesting. She sets the scene well and her characters are very funny and quirky and real. You want to be friends with them (the good guys at least). And the mystery so far is hard to solve, as was the mystery in The Likeness. Throughout both books, I had some ideas, but she was good at changing my mind.

The book is rather long (more than 400 pages), and some reviewers didn’t like that so much. But, I love longer books, especially if they can hold my attention like hers seem to do. I’m sure this weekend I’ll have a hard time putting it down.