In the Woods

In the Woods
by Tana French


Blurb:

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.

My Reaction (with SPOILERS):
Since there's a recent TV adaptation based on this series, I did my best to avoid spoilers, and as a result, I went into this book with a couple of misconceptions. Unfortunately, that's led to me feeling dissatisfied, now that I know more about the series of books.

You see, I thought this was the first of a trilogy, but now I discover that it's actually one in a longer (more loosely connected) series and that the books aren't all told from the same character's perspective. If I understand correctly, none of the others (to date) are from Rob Ryan's point of view, and he likely doesn't play a major role in any of the other books. This is a problem for me.

When it became clear that "Rob's mystery" (the two missing kids from the 1980s) wasn't going to be solved by the end of the book, I wasn't terribly surprised. With two more books left in the trilogy (as I thought it was), I expected to find the conclusion in the third book. Then, when things started to fall apart between Cassie and Rob, I was disconcerted, but figured it would just be grist for the mill in the second and third books. You must have conflict to have a story, etc., etc.

Now that I know that this book is essentially a stand-alone, as far as the 1980's mystery is concerned (and that there is unlikely to ever be more written about Cassie and Rob as a couple), all the allowances I made for the book as I read it have fallen by the wayside. Before, I'd been making excuses. Yes, the pace was slower than I'd have liked, but we'd get there eventually-- and true, Rob was very stupid and snobbish at times, and he was an idiotic jerk to Cassie, but it would all be resolved in Book 2 or 3, surely-- right? Nope.

It's unfortunate. I'd really enjoyed the better parts and aspects of the book and was curious about where the next two would take the story, but I'm not satisfied with the lack of a true conclusion for the (far more interesting) older mystery. I've read the theories (and had come to a similar conclusion on my own-- definitely picked up on some supernatural vibes throughout the novel), but it's not enough to leave me happy.

And as for Rob and Cassie-- ugh. I was never agog over their (not-so) perfect platonic relationship, to be honest. It seemed... improbable and even somewhat obnoxious (like the too-frequent, too "current" pop-culture references). "We're special. We're not like other people. We have a bond no-one else could understand, to the point that we practically read one another's mind. We'd never let romance complicate our perfect relationship. ...Oops, we let romance mess things up! Now we'll spend the rest of the book hurting one another and refusing to communicate. Aren't we quite the pair of tragic, star-cross'd lovers?" ...But anyway, even if they annoy me, I still wanted to see them work things out-- and now I know that's not happening. Ugh. No, I don't like it.

Maybe, maybe if I hadn't gone into this expecting a self-contained trilogy with a typical trilogy-style story arc, I might have been able to accept that this was a different kind of story-- not remotely happy or even satisfying. Then again, maybe it would've bothered me just as much, no matter what I'd been expecting. All I know for certain is that it's left me feeling bitter and frustrated.

I might at some point try the next in the series, which is told from Cassie's point of view, but I'm disappointed that it's not a true continuation of In the Woods. And if what I'm picking up from reviews is correct (that this author likes her characters best when they're suffering), I'm just not sure when I'll have an appetite for more.