In the Woods
He went into the woods as a child with two friends. He was the only one who came back. Twenty years later there is a body in the same woods.
The Detective's Confession
Tana French's 2007 debut novel is narrated by Dublin Murder Squad detective Rob Ryan, who harbours a secret: as a child, he was found in the woods of Knocknaree, shoes filled with blood, unable to remember what happened to the two friends who had been with him. Two decades later he is assigned to investigate the murder of a twelve-year-old girl found on an archaeological dig in the same woods. French creates a layered, psychologically rich crime novel in which the investigation and the narrator's buried past echo and interfere with each other. The novel won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel.
Reading In the Woods
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"What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this — two things: I crave truth. And I lie.
"Tana French · In the Woods
French was an actress before she became a writer and spent years in theatrical productions in Dublin. She brings that understanding of character and performance to every novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series.
The novel sparked controversy among mystery readers because French refuses to resolve one of its central mysteries. She has defended the choice by saying not all mysteries have clean solutions and neither does life.