Time passes and Adam grows up. He is now called Rob (his middle name) in an effort to distance the now young man from the horror that beset his childhood. Rob has coped well and is reasonably well adjusted, but the event that changed his life has determined his career choice as an adult. He now works as a police detective in the village where he grew up. His partner is Cassie Maddox a no nonsense young woman with her eyes and mind firmly on advancement. Cassie and Rob work well together and have become close friends though Cassie knows nothing of Rob’s traumatic childhood event.

As fate would have it, Rob and Cassie catch a case with an eerie resemblance to the one Rob was involved in so many years ago. A twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in what remains of the woods in which Rob had played. Rob has several issues to resolve. Should he disqualify himself from the investigation because of his connection to the twenty year old case? Or, would the fact that he has abundant local knowledge be an advantage? Should he confide in Cassie and tell her of his involvement in the old case? Or, on the other hand, are the two cases totally unrelated, the sole similarity being the death or disappearance of twelve-year-old children?

Though it has elements of other mystery subgenres, In the Woods is in essence a psychological suspense novel. As we meet the principal characters in the drama it becomes clear the personalities of those closely connected to the crime are of primary importance to the successful resolution of the mystery.

Rob is a refreshingly unusual young man. He is intelligent and caring, though I wish the author had chosen to allow her audience to view the story through Cassie’s eyes instead of Rob’s. At the risk of seeming sexist, Rob’s comments often sound odd coming from a man. He is too empathetic and nurturing making him seem almost effeminate. His interest in and knowledge of ballet is extraordinary without any obvious reason. Rob has not been psychologically damaged by the traumatic event that colored his childhood. He does not spend time soul searching for why he lived or was found and his closest friends were not. He copes and lives his life in the present. Cassie too has had a less than perfect childhood but manages to function as a competent adult in an adult world.

Lest readers think that Ms. French has peopled her novel with competent people who are basically good, there are major players in the novel that range from less than good to exceptionally evil and it is not at all obvious who is who. She plays with the concept of people being born evil or adopting it as a lifestyle as a result of the vagaries of their environment. How the characters got to be what they are is not nearly as important as recognizing personality traits for what they are.

Though the novel is set in a small settlement near Dublin, there is little flavor of the Irish countryside. The author has lived in the United States though she currently resides in Dublin. The language and colloquialisms are typically American. This fact is both comforting and disconcerting. It is easy for a reader in the United States to instantly recognize a sweater as a sweater, but those little differences in the English language are what help to root the story in its given location.

In the Woods is a debut novel by Tana French. It reads like a novel of an accomplished writer which, indeed, Ms. French certainly is. She has created an intriguing plot, but her characters are memorable because they are neither perfect, nor terribly flawed. They resemble real people, with their own strengths and weaknesses. As this novel goes into paperback, a second novel, The Likeness, featuring Cassie Maddox, will be published shortly in hard cover.

--Andy Plonka