In the Woods

"Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox, police detective partners, are brought in to solve the murder of a 12yo girl in small town Knocknaree. The murder has eerie similarities to the disappearance of two children 20 years earlier. The relationship between Rob and Cassie is strong, good debating about of leads and points. The 12yo girl’s murder presents an especially distasteful story. Second time reading this book, which I first discovered 11 years ago and subsequently read all the follow-on books of the Dublin Murder Squad. "

"Get cozy. This is a long one. I’m going to spoil this so feel free to skip reading if this is something you’ve been told you’ll love and you want to read. The biggest mystery around our main protagonist (Detective Ryan) doesn’t get solved, which is to me is frustrating because that was the most interesting part of the story. Ryan is an unreliable narrator and a sterotypical jerk towards women he finds unattractive or useless. He only points out and gives attention to the “thin, birdlike” and “snowy pale blonde” girls in the novel. These ways of describing the women in the book are sprinkled throughout and it took me out of it. The only time these descriptors are not made on a woman is on Ryan’s partner, Detective Cassie, and some college girl in passing (a “large earnest girl, probably American”) *eyeroll* I’m not sure why the author is writing the majority of women in this manner, but there could be some diversity. I understand we’re reading from a male point of view in Ireland but COME ON. Ryan admits his character flaws, but his level of awareness does not allow enough room for me to like him. Cassie deserved to be written so much better. There is an argument with Ryan, where she’s completely in the right, and he describes to the reader that she was being crazy, illogical, and too emotional without explicitly saying it. COME ONNN. You’re joking Tana. As Ryan is reflecting on who really murdered Katy (the “pretty”, “dainty”, 17-YEAR-OLD sister) he admits she got him to behave like a well trained dog. Then says “She fooled me, but she fooled you too” OK RYAN. Not like I predicted she had something to do with her sister’s murder from the beginning! Be so for real. I enjoyed the long dialogue between Cassie and Ryan, they had a good, platonic relationship going for them, then Ryan had to ruin it. He didn’t even say sorry until it was too late. Overall, the writing style was good, but Ryan was a HORRIBLE character to have to experience the story through."

"Was hooked at the start, compelling mystery but ultimately HATED this one. The end was inexcusably disappointing. Lazy actually, imo. "He woke up & it was all a dream" would've been preferable. Author must not have had the imagination to craft resolution to the mystery. Boo."

"The blurb about the book is basically click bait. A well written, anti-climactic, too long, murder mystery. It left me not caring to read more of her books because I don’t trust her as an author."

"I love watching cop shows and this book was very much like it but so much better! I loved the descriptions and how you went into the main characters deeper thoughts. I will say the one thing I didn't like about the book was how it let a couple of things end. It felt like they were never going to be resolved or you don't figure out fully what happens. I hate unsolved situations or where there many possible answers to something but nothing is definite. 4/5 🌟"

"It was a bit of a tedious read and the ending felt a little anticlimactic to me. Overall I love the ambitious style of the book, which still made it a nice read. "

"Almost nothing happened in this book. Zero resolution. "

"Well written but an absolute slog "

"Update. Put the book down. Good story line but just couldn’t continue… read up on the spoilers online. Happy to say I didn’t miss out on much. What a shame it had potential. "

"Highly recommend for mystery suspense ♥️"