In the Woods

A Novel

By: Tana French

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

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)

entertained by not satisfied

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I couldn't turn my Ipod off, I did extra housework to keep listening to it. In the end, though, don't look for straightforward answers. If you want a detective story that's nicely tied up in the end, this one may not satisfy. Some big loose ends are left dangling, let's hope the author has future plans to tie them up. If you want entertainment and an intriguing listen that will keep you guessing and make you think, though, this is definitely worth the listen.

Sure, if you like great writing...

It's hard to name what keeps this from being a 5 star book. What makes Revolver a '5', and The White Album a '4'? (Or was it the other way around?) I gave a couple PD James books '5's, The Devil in the White City' a '5'; I'm not afraid of methodical narratives nor antique timing. This book is well written -- some of the sentences are little gold things all on their own -- and the story ticks along. Stephen Crossley does a fine job narrating (though, isn't this supposed to be in Ireland??) At least some of the characters are Irish? Well, it's probably best to avoid the accent altogether if you can't do it with conviction. So I'll leave it a mystery why I begrudge it that one last star. (Could be because it FEELS like it's promising ju-u-st more than it ultimately delivers? It's very, very good - and I highly recommend it. I do! But...although along the way I thought I might, I didn't end up lighting up a smoke or anything when it was finished.) That said, I'll remember it fondly.

In the Woods - Amazing Debut for Tana French

Vivid, imaginative and even, at times, breathtakingly beautiful. So engrossing you won't want to stop listening and even though you want to know the answers to the many mysteries, you are sorry when some conclusions unfold because you know that the story will soon end.

Gorgous prose gets into way of plot

This book is thirty percent too long. The plot, a Tana French trope, regarding a male detective in his prime who is traumatically flawed by childhood experiences and is assigned a case which drops him into the ancient mess, and, furthermore, he can't let his superiors know about the childhood connection because, well, he won't get to work the case (this same basic formulation appears in Faithfull Place and Broken Harbor.)

However, French's gift for endless poetic metaphor and nuanced description, as in her other novels, as delightful as it is, eventually served to deaden this listener's appreciation for the beauty of her writing and instead led to snarls of frustration, wishing she would get on with the damn story! Which actually is a pretty good police procedural.

Tana French is a gifted writer, and her lovely depictions of Irish dialogue and wit are gorgeous . Her character's and their relationships mostly ring true, with some misses. However, twenty two hours is ridiculous - what other writer needs this much space to display a novel?

But I still recommend this book - the writing, given the flaws mentioned above, far surpasses the average police procedural and most other offerings available on Audible. I say give it a try.
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Loved the plot - not so fond of the characters

I really liked the convoluted twists and turns of the story but I never heard so much angst from a character in my life. I tired of listening to Rob/Adam's endless review of his feelings, physical reactions (taste is his mouth, hits to the gut, etc.) at every nuance of the story. The needless and somewhat ridiculous collapse of his relationship with Cassie was disappointing.

Amazing !

Best narrator ! Awesome. I love every book written by Tana French. In the woods is an amazing book. Great!

Great

This is undoubtedly the best detective novel I have ever read. The resolution of the "whodunnit" part is a complete surprise, but totally consistent with the evidence and built right into the plot from the beginning. You end up thinking, "Yes, that was obvious. Why didn't I see it?" The only reason I did not give it five stars is for one major shortcoming and a minor one. The major shortcoming is that it just moves too slowly. I think the plot could have been wrapped up in about half the length of this book, add a another quarter for the excellent character development, and you still have a book that is 1/4 longer than it needs to be. The minor shortcoming is that at the end there are still unanswered questions and loose threads to the story. It is probably appropriate that there should be, but it bothered me.

Enjoyed very much

I went into this book blind. I found it very slow for most of the book and the narrator has some awkward pauses and mouth noises throughout. I would knock out a few hours, forget about the book for a while. Come back to it a week or two later, get a little further. Then I hit a point where it got very good. The writing is superb. Highly talented. Narration could use improving but overall this is a great audiobook and unfortunately I will probably buying everything else this writer has written as a result.

A Triumph!

Tana French is clearly one of those writers who seldom comes along- but leaves an indelible mark. Her prose is outstanding. Witty, dry, articulate and skillful- she is a master craftsman in terms of constructing clearly defined character voice and haunting realism. In my opinion, the mark of a truly great story is one that leaves you in a state of greedy withdraw symptoms- simply wishing there were more chapters. The narrator is fantastic as well. He brings this story to life with effortless precision leaving the listener feeling as if they've just had a long late night conversation with a desperately interesting stranger. Well done all around!

Good story-driven mystery

The story is very well put together. I found there was too much detail in some parts. I also didn't really like the characters. Took me a while to get into the book because of this, a third or half way through it began to peak my interest. Even by the end I didn't like the characters much, but the story was very good and warranted my rating.