Frankly my dear, I do give a damn – “In the Woods” by Tana French

Cover of In the Woods

“In the Woods” by Tana French, Published 2007

I loved this book.
Seriously,  stop what you are reading or pause your DVR or quit your job or after being incredibly responsible reward yourself and read this book.    In the arena of suspense novels it is one of the best I have read – no, I am not kidding.

It begins with a story about three children who, in 1984, disappear into the woods right outside of Dublin, Ireland. Only one child was ever found:

“…a policeman with a torch found Adam Ryan in a densely wooded area near the center of the wood, standing with his back and palms pressed against a large oak tree. His fingernails were digging into the trunk so deeply that they had not broken off in the bark.”

The reader then finds out that this kid, only all grown up and a murder detective, is the narrator.  Detective Ryan can remember nothing- not what happened to his friends, not how his socks were filled with blood, and not, perhaps most importantly, why he survived. And instead of memory, he is forever left with the guilt of surviving.

But he finds himself with a new murder mystery to solve, twenty years later, in the same woods.  A young girl, Katy Devlin, is found strangled in the field that is left where the woods have in part been removed.  Ryan is stuck trying to solve this new murder, determine whether there is a connection between the two incidents, while desperately trying to remember what happened twenty years ago.  It is an amazing balancing act, that crumbles very quickly. And that folks, is all I can share about this book. I feel that if I share more, it will be too much.  I will say that Ryan warns you from the beginning that he is not a reliable narrator:

“What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective. Our relationship with truth is fundamental but cracked, refracting confusingly like fragmented glass. It is the core of our careers, the endgame of every move we make, and we pursue it with strategies painstakingly constructed of lies and concealment and every variation on deception.”

The ending is not what you want but as a reader you quickly realize that French really gave you the only ending that works. And though it is not Scarlett and Rhett living happily ever after (which after 4 hours of film should have happened), it is indeed what you knew all along would happen or at least what you suspected would happen.  But you don’t feel cheated, you just feel resigned.  And that is some amazing writing.

Related articles

• Paramount Acquires IN THE WOODS and Sequel THE LIKENESS for GOSSIP GIRL’s Stephanie Savage (collider.com)
• In The Woods by Tana French (bookjourney.wordpress.com)