In The Woods by Tana French

Synopsis:
Three children leave their small Dublin neighborhood to play in the surrounding woods. Hours later, their mothers' calls go unanswered. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children, gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, Detective Rob Ryan--the found boy, who has kept his past a secret--and his partner Cassie Maddox investigate the murder of a twelve-year-old girl in the same woods. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him, and that of his own shadowy past.

My Rating: 7/10

My Thoughts:
Warning, possible spoilers....

First off, I love the cover. It was what initially made me pick this novel up.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The first half was really, really good. The mystery surrounding Robs childhood was marvelously creepy, and then the new murder being possibly connected really interested me. Plus on top of that I loved the relationship between Rob and Cassie. Their interactions were really fun, and they just seemed like cool people I would want to hang out with. And at about half way through, I was kicking myself for waiting so long to pick this book up. However...

The second half. GAH! Everything just falls apart. Cassie and Rob's relationship, the murder case, Rob's state of mind. The story just started to drag, and everything the book had going for it just went wrong. Plus I kinda figured out who the murder was way early. (And how could Tana French just leave us hanging on the mystery of Rob's childhood??? I mean, I understand leaving it a little ambiguous, but it's more like she forgot that his mystery was even part of the book and left us with nothing!) Ok, done ranting. So even though I kept reading to find out how it was going to end, I just wasn't impressed with the second half.

I don't know, maybe I'm just not getting the intellectual subtleties of the symbolism or something. Or maybe not. I've read a lot of reviews where people loved this book, so I guess I would just recommend reading it and deciding for yourself.