Breakaway Books

Authored by Tana French; Published 2007; Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

I don’t normally love novels like In the Woods. Without spoiling too much, the ending is certainly not what I would have hoped for. Yet, even though my heart tugged with pain when I closed this book, I enjoyed it far more than many mysteries I’ve read lately.

In the Woods is a first-person telling of the investigation of a murder of a young girl outside Dublin. The nature of the crime in and of itself would make the novel dark, but in the background lurks the unsolved disappearance of the two close childhood friends of the narrator. The novel touches on his grief as he deals with trauma and particularly its effects on his memory, even as he slowly unravels.

I liked the narrator, in spite of myself. He drinks and makes poor decisions as he sinks deeper and deeper into his memories, and still at the end, I felt a deep sympathy for him. I don’t know how the author pulled it off, but even as I deplored his actions, I couldn’t help but like him. The bond between him and his partner made me smile, and its slow disintegration was, for me, the most difficult part of the book to read.

The novel has the basic structure of a police procedural, but it feels richer, somehow. Maybe I like the Irish setting, or the glimpse into the country’s archaeological digs. The history that it reveals, or perhaps the passion that the archaeologists felt for what their field signifies, gave it a gravitas that otherwise it would have lacked. It felt like it was more than just another case—and to be sure, for the narrator, it is much more momentous than that. 

This is a novel rooted in cynicism, where corruption wins out and longstanding mysteries aren’t necessarily solved. At moments, it was depressing, although not overwhelmingly so. Even with the looming violent crimes to be solved, the book still managed to have cozy moments. If I have any criticism, it is that I would wish for a little more hope for these characters.

I will definitely be reading more of this series. I want to find a happy ending, somewhere.