In the Woods / Tana French

Although I used to be an avid consumer of crime fiction, for some reason I completely set this genre aside a few years ago. Just as inexplicably, I'd never read any Tana French before. This is the first in her Dublin Murder Squad series — and her debut novel.

The body of Katy Devlin, a promising young ballet dancer, is found on a stone altar in the woods near her home in a small Irish town. The site has lately been attracting much attention, since a controversial motorway is set to cut right through it, prompting an archaeological dig to salvage as many artifacts as possible before the heavy machinery moves in. This location was also the scene of another tragedy 20 years previously, when three 12-year-olds went missing in these woods and only one was ever found.

Few know what became of this traumatised boy after his family moved away, but we readers are privy to this information — as is his partner in the Murder Squad. Now grown up and living under a new name, he's part of the team investigating Katy's death; he's also our narrator, "the only person who can tell this story," and speaks directly to us.

There was a time when I believed, with the police and the media and my stunned parents, that I was the redeemed one, the boy borne safely home on the ebb of whatever freak tide carried Peter and Jamie away. Not any more. In ways too dark and crucial to be called metaphorical, I never left that wood.

Returning to the very spot where his childhood friends disappeared inevitably stirs up many emotions in Rob Ryan; he half hopes, half dreads that somehow it will dislodge some of the memories of the event that his mind has blocked. Looking through the notes of the old investigation, Rob realizes that Katy's father was one of the lads seen loitering nearby when he, Peter and Jaime went missing. Could there be a direct link between the cases? However, Jonathan Devlin is now part of the group that opposes the construction of the motorway, thus offering another theory for his daughter's murder. To complicate matters, something feels very wrong about the whole Devlin family, which Rob's partner Cassie Maddox can sense as well.

It's difficult to believe that In the Woods is a debut. Tana French writes with impressive control and aplomb, with occasional touches of lyricism (the prologue is among the best prose I've read in a long time). Her intrigue is well constructed, and she has an amazing talent for creating and sustaining tension. Not only does she give remarkably insightful descriptions of the physical and mental after-effects of trauma, she also finds original ways to show the intense relationship between Rob and Cassie (my favourite character — she's a brilliant badass).

I feel I must explain why this book received such a relatively low rating despite its undeniable qualities. My principal problem with it lies in our protagonist, an eminently unreliable narrator who spends much of his time in self-justification — and rightly so. Yes, he underwent a devastating ordeal and must deal with a situation where he may be forced to face demons from his past while also protecting his identity from discovery, blah blah fishcakes. BUT. I can't stand characters who, although fully aware that their irresponsible actions will compromise many aspects of their lives (including, in this specific case, the rather important matter of the investigation into a little girl's murder), carry on regardless. This kind of indulgent self-destructiveness makes my hackles rise and doesn't at all elicit my sympathy towards a character, no matter how many excellent reasons the author puts forward.

I knew, you see, that I had been sent away because they had disappeared; and I knew that if they were to run back out of the wood some evening, grubby and nettle-stung and demanding their tea, I would be allowed to come home.

As interesting as it was to be inside Rob's head as he pieced together this puzzle and dealt with his personal issues, it sometimes got extremely tedious; the occasional break, with an objective third-person narrative or oven another first-person narrative from his partner Cassie's point of view, would have been a welcome palate cleanser.

At a certain point near the end, when talking about a certain character, Rob says something like "I bet you didn't see this coming." Well, sorry Rob (and Tana), but I could smell that particular "revelation" from a mile away... Just because you're clueless, we shouldn't be dragged to your level, and it was more than a little insulting to be taken for such a fool.

Finally, another thing that annoyed me (as it always does) was Rob's frequent teasing phrases such as "Who knows what would have happened if..." or "If I'd known then what I know now, I might have acted differently." It's just unnecessarily taunting the reader and it needs to stop.

To summarize: I enjoyed this book, am glad to have finally discovered such a talented crime writer, and look forward to reading her other DMS novels, but could have done without the irritating main character.

I purchased this e-book online.

Rating: ***½