Book Review: In the Woods, by Tana French

I have Reading Fever. After buying a few books several weeks ago, I found myself purchasing six more on Thursday. The first of which is In the Woods. Tana French's mystery novel is well-written, if not especially fulfilling. The book jacket suggests there are two parallel mysteries and I expected two resolutions. I only got one.

The first mystery involves three children entering the woods and only one child returning. The missing children disappear forever and the surviving child was found in the woods clinging to a tree with bloody socks and shoes. The child is catatonic for two weeks and never fully remembers what happened in the woods that day.

Flash forward 20 years. The surviving child, Adam, becomes a detective and a similar case arises in the same woods. After the incident in the woods his parents began calling him by his middle name, Rob, and he becomes lead detective on the new case with his partner Cassie. He tells no one of the connection but Cassie.

The first half of the book is quite flawless. Easy to read and I absolutely couldn't wait to see what happened on the next page. Terrific character development and vivid descriptions. My only complaint with this part is the sometimes juvenile banter between Rob and Cassie. Their relationship seems more appropriate in a high school setting.

The second half dropped off tremendously for me. We find out that only one of the mysteries will be solved and the mystery that is solved has a weak motive and the investigative skills seem mediocre at best. I was quite disappointed with the ending. I know that novels do not have to be 100% resolved by the end of the book, but the unsolved mystery is the reason I bought the book!

The good news is that the book leaves the mystery open-ended, so possibly French will write another book resolving that mystery. I will definitely buy her next novel, Likeness. In spite of the disappointment in the ending of this book, French proves herself to be a terrific writer with a talent for creating suspense. I have great hopes for her future novels and highly recommend In the Woods to the mystery novel reader.