Review: In the Woods

 ★★★

Three children wander into the woods behind their house one summer evening. They don't return home that night. The next day, one boy is found hanging onto a tree trunk with his shoes soaked with blood. He has no recollection of the previous night. His friends are never found.

Sounds great right? I thought so too. Even before I finished reading the blurb I knew I had to read this book. It caught my attention immediately, and I was expecting a full-throttle mystery novel with twists and turns, jump scares, the like. I've read some of Tana French's books in the past, and I loved all of them, so I was expecting great things. Unfortunately, this book did not deliver. 

The novel follows Rob Ryan, the boy found in the woods. He's grown up and is now a detective in the Dublin police force, where he solves murder crimes. While the blurb makes this book appear like a mystery investigation into his childhood trauma, very little of the novel is actually spent on that case. Rather, Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox are "investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery" as the blurb puts it. Only one line in the synopsis is given to the case that ultimately takes up the majority of the book. I read this book for the primary case, but instead, I was given a meandering, predictable story about a separate killing. I mean seriously! Look at the cover! This book should have been a thriller! As the reader, I felt misled.

What I found most annoying was that these cases were never even related -- the only similarities were the town and age of the murdered girl. I've seen enough Criminal Minds to know that the modus operandi of the two cases was different, indicating that it's an entirely different killer. The bodies of the two kids were never found, but the body of the new case was displayed prominently. The murder weapons were different, and serial killers rarely take that much time in between cases. It doesn't take much to see that these cases were never related from the beginning, and the author should have done a better job of connecting them more.

Another pressing issue I had was with the ending of the book. SPOILERS AHEAD! TURN BACK NOW!

I was absolutely outraged by the end of the book: the author never gave us an explanation of what happened to Ryan's friends! Even though the MAJORITY of the blurb was spent discussing the case and the MAJORITY of Ryan's inward reflection was about the trauma, THEY NEVER SOLVED THE CASE. The author left it open-ended with numerous explanations for what actually happened. Ranging from Ryan killing his friends to a ~supernatural creature~ in the woods, the theories were far-fetched and unrealistic. I read crime thrillers like these to escape real life. I did not want a meandering story with no ending, and that's exactly what I got. In fact, it almost seemed like the author never had a clear idea of how the book would end, and had to scramble to figure out an explanation.

Ryan is likely an unreliable narrator. He is also a tremendous narcissist, borderline psychopath, and in the last few chapters he was soooo worried about his fragile masculinity that I nearly threw up. I think the author wanted to make the reader feel bad for him, but I simply couldn't stand him.

Why did I give this book three stars with all of the reasons above? In short, the writing itself was incredible. Ryan's inward self-reflections were masterfully done, the vignettes of the interview room were amazing, and I would have loved this book if it weren't for the ending. 

6/10 recommend.