In the Woods

In the Woods is a 2007 mystery novel by Tana French. The central theme is the summer evening, (twenty years prior to the novel's events), when twelve year-old Adam and his two best friends failed to come home from a trip into the familiar woods bordering their Irish housing estate. In the present day, Detective Rob [Adam] Ryan claims that the twin disappearances of his friends and his memory of that afternoon have not had any real effect on his p... more

In the Woods is a 2007 mystery novel by Tana French. The central theme is the summer evening, (twenty years prior to the novel's events), when twelve year-old Adam and his two best friends failed to come home from a trip into the familiar woods bordering their Irish housing estate. In the present day, Detective Rob [Adam] Ryan claims that the twin disappearances of his friends and his memory of that afternoon have not had any real effect on his psyche. Though the novel centers on Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox's, investigation of the murder of a twelve year-old girl in those same woods, it is the long-ago disappearances which provides the main psychological thrust of the novel. The novel won the 2008 Edgar Award for Best First Novel By An American Author. French's second novel, The Likeness, was published in 2008. It continues with Cassie Maddox and mentions Adam (Rob) Ryan only peripherally. less