In the Woods

I've been watching this title for a while now and finally decided to purchase a copy.  I'm thrilled with the book so far.  It's a crime novel about three children who encounter something evil in their local woods.  One child (the protagonist) is found alive, yet catatonic.  The other two have disappeared.  The novel picks up as the surviving child is in his thirties and working in the Murder department of the Dublin police.  The author's writing style reminds me of Steig Larsson's...lots of detail you think is erroneous, yet later you discover you crave it.  

This is Tana French's debut novel and apparently there's a sequel.  I found the need to put a face to one of the characters, Cassie, and so immediately knew who she reminded me of...Teresa Lisbon of The Mentalist, as seen below.  Once I took a look at the author, however, I think she wrote Cassie to mirror herself!  She's the spitting image of Cassie!!!

This is the actress, Teresa Lisbon, that I originally had pictured as Cassie.

And this is Tana French, the author, who fits the profile perfectly!  I think that's pretty neat. 

Here's the blurb from the back of the book:

"As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children, gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled shoes, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox – his partner and closest friend – find themselves investigating a case with chilling links to that long-ago disappearance. Now, with only snippets of buried memories to guide him, Rob has the chance to unravel both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past."
Click here to read an excerpt from the book:http://www.tanafrench.com/pagesus/excerpt.html

In the Woods is an adult crime thriller that I will definitely recommend to LT, her daughter, her husband and several other teachers I work with.  The language and mature content keep it from being appropriate for middle schoolers.  (Sorry!)

On my way to 100 books!
Happy Reading!
RC