Tana French is an extraordinary crime writer who manages to combine literary prose with engaging characterisation and a page-turning plot. In her novel In The Woods (Hachette 2007), the fictional Dublin Murder Squad takes on the case of the murder of a child. Narrated in the first person by Detective Rob Ryan, we are given an intimate perspective of the layers and threads of the investigation that he follows, along with his partner, Cassie Maddox. In this way, In The Woods is a traditional crime novel with an expected trajectory.
But Rob Ryan has a secret, and this is the twist that turns the book into a true psychological thriller. Twenty years earlier, on a carefree summer day, three children ran into the same woods, just outside Dublin, to play, as they did almost every day. They knew the forest as well as they knew each other and nobody worried a jot until night fell and only one child came out, with no memory of what happened to his two friends.
That child’s name was not Rob. But as we discover, he too has a poor memory, a hidden past and more than one mystery to uncover.
The current day murdered child is discovered posed on a stone of archaeological significance in the area of Knocknaree in the midst of earthworks and infrastructure for a new motorway (much to the chagrin of a group of locals who most certainly do not want their quiet and sacred ground of the woods to be disturbed for the sake of progress). Is there a link between this and the unsolved crime of twenty years earlier? Or is it only coincidence that brings Rob back to his childhood home? And can we even believe everything he tells us about then, and now?
French is a great writer who skilfully uses intelligent plotting and surprising twists, underpinned by engrossing themes, in this instance relating to identity and memory. As with all good crime books, there is an abundance of suspects and plenty of motive and opportunity. The ending was not quite what I had anticipated – I had expected something more complex – so I was a little disappointed in that sense. There was certain foreshadowing that I don’t believe the author followed up in a satisfactory way. But the book as a whole is compelling and page-turning, with lush description and a richly evocative and atmospheric sense of place.