In the Woods

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What to expect

The inspiration for the major new BBC drama series DUBLIN MURDERS.

A stunningly accomplished psychological mystery which will take you on a thrilling journey through a tangled web of evil and beyond - to the inexplicable.

When he was twelve years old, Adam Ryan went playing in the woods one day with his two best friends. He never saw them again. Their bodies were never found, and Adam himself was discovered with his back pressed against an oak tree and his shoes filled with blood. He had no memory of what had happened.

Twenty years on, Rob Ryan - the child who came back - is a detective in the Dublin police force. He's changed his name. No one knows about his past. Then a little girl's body is found at the site of the old tragedy and Rob is drawn back into the mystery. Knowing that he would be thrown off the case if his past were revealed, Rob takes a fateful decision to keep quiet but hope that he might also solve the twenty-year-old mystery of the woods.

(P)2008 Oakhill Publishing

Critics Review

  • Sharply written and insidiously creepy, this is a mesmerising read that grabs hold of the reader from the very first page and doesn’t let go until well past two in the morning.

    The Times
  • This is a wonderfully assured and beautifully written debut novel, a multilayered psychological thriller that digs beneath the surface of ordinary lives and delivers excitement and insight in large helpings.

    Irish Independent
  • Lyrical and haunting

    Scotland on Sunday
  • A real show-stopper of a thriller . . . Author tightens the tension slowly until squealing point; Ryan’s increasingly taut relationship with Maddox is woven cunningly around the crime plot. A splendid, page-turning debut.

    She
  • A rich multi-layered thriller

    Choice
  • This is a real treat for Christmas. In the Woods is a classic murder mystery with plenty of twists and macabre detail. This is Tana French’s debut and it’s startlingly accomplished . . . French writes beautifully and is far from lazy when it comes to sprinkling clues and red herrings and developing the characters.

    Alyson Rudd, The Times

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