In the Woods

One of my favorite things in media (be it in movies, tv shows, video games or books) is when I get pleasantly surprised. When I go into something with a specific expectation, and get blown away by something I did not see coming. “In the Woods” did this for me.

I was in the mood for a classic murder mystery. Even if the market is flooded with them, and after seeing that this is the first book in a series called “Dublin Murder Squad” -which kinda sounded like some off the shelf shovelware stuff- I chose this.

What I really love about murder stories is the investigation progress. I find something cozy in around the clock working detectives huddled into some small room, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee out of cups while digging themselves through mountains of paperwork and photographs. Bonus points for rain that pours down the windows.

And I got all that with “In the Woods”. The writing is really visually and atmospheric, and the coziness kicked in alright. But around the middle of the book the pleasant surprises started to seep through. The plot and characters got way more complex than I expected. I couldn't stop reading. I felt like a detective myself learning all the tiny bits of the characters, and learned to love and/or hate them. All the way to the solutions I couldn't predict the outcome. And Tana French threw one or two small twists in.

I can see that some people will hate this book just because of the fact that one of the biggest mystery doesn't get solved. But I didn't mind. It really fits into the circumstances and left me with something to think about.

Although there are sequels I will probably never read them. For me this was a perfect story in itself and I would like to remember the characters as they are at the end of this book.