I’ll begin with the good stuff first. The writing as to style and the use of the language is exquisite. The author’s deep insight into his characters, especially the point-of-view character and the protagonist Detective Adam Robert Ryan is unique. The plot is clever and exciting, and the pacing is smooth without boring the reader.

In the story, Detective Ryan (35 years old) and his partner Detective Cassie Maddox (33) begin to investigate the murder of a young teenage girl, the 12-year-old Katy Devlin. Katy’s body is found at the edge of the woods on an altar at an archeological dig site. Katy’s family lives nearby and she has an older sister Rosalind and a twin sister Jessica.

What is known to the readers yet unknown to the story characters is a childhood trauma in Detective Ryan’s past. In his much younger days, Detective Ryan, known as Adam Ryan at the time, was very close to two of his childhood friends, Peter and Jamie, and they spent a lot of time playing in the woods of Knocknaree, the same place off Dublin where Adam was found stabbed, near death, and his shoes full of blood. The DNA of the blood did not belong to Adam. The puzzle of Peter and Jamie’s disappearance was never solved, and Adam, suffering from amnesia, never knew what hurt him and his friends. In time, Adam recovered and his family moved out of the area. Later in his life, Adam went to school in London, using his second name as his first, his accent changing into that of an upper-class British person, and letting those in the murder squad know him as “Rob” or Robert Ryan, starting with Kelly the superintendent of the murder squad.

So far is the set-up of the story. The plot takes numerous twists and turns with many different characters in the soup, uncertainties, suspicions, possible suspects, and subplots as red herrings. Added to the mix is the friendly relationship between Cassie and Rob that takes an unusual turn toward the end. Rob Ryan’s disturbed emotional state gets in the way and childhood memories that were only about his happy days with Peter and Jamie surface here and there.

What I didn’t like all that much was, although Katy Devlin’s murder was solved, what happened to Rob and his friends in their childhood was left as a loose end. I read the following five books in the series and the author never returned to this mystery. I also didn’t like how Kelly treated Rob Ryan after learning of his past, although Rob was the one who solved the Katy Devlin case.

As to the characters, Rob Ryan, a capable detective but still suffering from his childhood trauma, is flawed and contradictory even inside himself. This makes him an] unreliable narrator some of the time. He has trust and intimacy issues, and that’s probably why he trusts the wrong person, the one who masterminded the murder.

Cassie Maddox is a true friend to Rob and although she knows of his past, she never gives him away. She is forthright, compassionate, and can do profiling well. She is the one who suspected the guilty psychopathic character from the beginning.

Sam O’Neill is the third partner added to Rob and Cassie’s team. He is quite nice and cheerful.

The dialogue is lively and credible. The scenes are exquisitely presented and narrated, and the storyline captivating.

I am a fan of Tana French’s writing since her mysteries are not cut from the average cloth of the mystery genre. In them, important characters are not one-sided and the solutions of the murders surface as thorny, intricate truths. This book, being the first one of its series, certainly takes a step in that direction.

having a good time with a murder mystery and also feeling satisfied with its literary content.

Cassie Maddox's strong character.

more appreciative toward the murder-mystery genre as this author has rescued it from the swamp.

is Tana French, the bestselling author of In the Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place, Broken Harbor, The Secret Place, The Trespasser, and The Witch Elm. Her books have won awards including the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and Barry Awards, the Los Angeles Times Award for Best Mystery/Thriller, and the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Dublin.

I had fun reading it, and although I felt the ending left something to be desired, the central murder was solved to satisfaction.

Leave it to me to read the first book last, which I don't recommend others do it, too. Although each book stands very well on its own, the same detectives show up in each story as the protagonists or supporting characters, and sometimes, they make cameo appearances. You'd still understand the central stories, but some of the enjoyment of familiarity may be lost.

If you wish to read Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, here's their order and the main detectives in them:

1. In the Woods = (Adam) Rob Ryan, Cassie Maddox

2. The Likeness = Cassie Maddox - Frank Mackey

3. Faithful Place = Frank Mackey (Holly who is Frank's daughter), Stephen Moran, Scorcher Kennedy (Frank's nemesis)

4. Broken Harbor = Scorcher Kennedy and the newbie Richie Curran

5. The Secret Place = Stephen Moran, Antoinette Conway (Holly Mackey again as the daughter of Frank Mackey)

6. The Trespasser = Stephen Moran, Antoinette Conway

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of In the Woods: the inspiration for the major new BBC drama series DUBLIN MURDERS, adapted by Sarah Phelps   from Amazon.Com!

Created Aug 14, 2019 at 5:47pm • Submit your own review...