In the Woods by Tana French

 In the Woods

by Tana French

In the Woods is a solid crime procedural novel about a Detective on the murder squad investigating a case of a murdered little girl and the personal stake he has in solving the crime.

The characters are incredibly well fleshed out, with likeable personalities, even when they are being awful to one another. I was totally invested in the main mystery and liked how the investigation unfolded. I have to say, I knew who the killer was the second they hit the page, but I didn't know why they had done it. It was satisfying to learn the answers; the underhanded and manipulating psychopath involved was a delicious addition and really pushed the characters to their limits, which I liked.

One thing I have to knock points off for for In the Woods is that the Detective Ryan past plot line wasn't resolved in a satisfying way for me. I would like to have seen some real answers to that case of his two missing friends. I was invested in his backstory and was disappointed that I didn't get any sort of answers to that. The other piece of that being the mysterious black creatures in those sequences were never resolved in any way, and didn't even seem to result in any sort of wonder by the characters. I would love to have seen that whole story develop. It, in itself, would make an exciting story to read.

All in all, I liked the book, my first read of any work by Tana French. I am definitely interested in reading more of her books. She has an excellent way with dialogue that seems natural and fun--easy, joking--even during serious passages, which is how people speak to one another. At least, people I know. The conflicts both internally and externally were deftly handled. I can learn a lot about writing character interactions and internal dialogue from French's writing. If I could combine her with Gillian Flynn, I would be an inimitable writer. 

I give In the Woods 4 stars. I just wish for those other story elements to have been explored more and resolved in some way. Excellent book!