Hardcover, 429 pages
English language
Published Jan. 13, 2007 by Viking Adult.
In the Woods is a 2007 mystery novel by Tana French about a pair of Irish detectives and their investigation of the murder of a twelve-year-old girl. It is the first book in French's Dublin Murder Squad series. The novel won several awards such as the 2008 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author, the 2008 Barry Award for Best First Novel, the 2008 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel, and the 2008 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. In the Woods and The Likeness, the second book of the Dublin Murder Squad series, are the inspiration for the BBC and Starz's 2019 Dublin Murders, an eight-episode series.
Loved, loved, loved this book. Beautifully written and captivating, human-centred and utterly believable. A big win for a crime drama novel.
I got pulled into reading this because of the TV series, and ironically, it almost took me as long to catch up with the book as it would have to watch the episodes I’d missed, as it’s not short.
Ryan is a rather wordy, literate sort of a cop, and the imagery he invokes was both powerful and captivating. I wasn’t sure about the prologue, for although it was beautiful, it didn’t do much for the story. Still, as the investigation starts to unfold and more of your typical police procedural comes into play, the interpersonal relationships in the force, not to mention Ryan’s own history, propelled this to a level a cut above your traditional whodoneit.
