In the Woods in Crazy Challenge Connection

Nov 23, 2011 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller-mystery, thriller-suspense, fall-2017

When I finished this novel, I felt a mixture of relief and dissatisfaction. Not all of my questions were answered, and I felt sadness and some disliking of one of the main characters - Rob Ryan. I peeked at the other novel book blurbs Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad Series and apparently Ryan is not in them. I was hoping he would, so he might redeem himself and find (view spoiler) When I finished this novel, I felt a mixture of relief and dissatisfaction. Not all of my questions were answered, and I felt sadness and some disliking of one of the main characters - Rob Ryan. I peeked at the other novel book blurbs Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad Series and apparently Ryan is not in them. I was hoping he would, so he might redeem himself and find (view spoiler)

I also noticed that Carrie Maddox and Sam O'Neil only appear in this and in the second installment. When I spend a couple of days and almost 600 pages with characters I really like, I want to see more of them.

It seems from the six book blurbs, there are no constant main characters, just the Murder Squad itself as the constant. I'm not sure if I want to invest time and energy in just a murder story with Dublin's elite squad of detectives assigned to a particular murder by chance of the case falling into their rotation.

As I said, I read murder mysteries for the characters - the cops, PIs and lay investigators (cozy mystery), and not necessarily because there is a murder in the pages of a novel. I enjoy standalone mysteries, but I expect more when I read a series.

I can understand why In the Woods won several awards; it's written and paced well. However, the author repeats several things and it got on my last nerve, and it was too drawn out. It could have been shorter without losing any thing, since French was not (view spoiler)

Book Summery

Rob Ryan and partner Cassie Maddox draw a murder case of a 12 year old girl in the same area that Ryan's 2 friends went missing in 1984. Ryan keeps his past a secret. And he has no memories of what happened to Jamie and Peter or how he managed to escape. Snippets of memories come back to Ryan. Can there be a serial killer? If there is, why did he wait 20 years to kill again? Can Ryan trust his instinct and the bits of memory coming back to him? Or will he be easily manipulated? His whole career depends on those answers. ...more

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Nov 08, 2014 Carol rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: disappointing

I was very disappointed with this author.

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 08, 2010 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery, series

I loved this -- I really cared about the two main characters, I failed to guess what was coming in spite of lots of hints, and (even though I find many authors spend more time than I like on description, when I'd prefer to be getting on with the plot) French's descriptions of the woods got to me at a level beyond words: I could really feel like I was there, whether in happy moments or frightening ones. ...more

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