Key themes
- The wound from childhood that the detective cannot solve — even for himself
- Memory, truth and the unreliable witness to one's own past
- The Dublin Murder Squad as a world of professional intimacy and betrayal
About this book
A detective with a buried childhood trauma works a case that mirrors it; literary, atmospheric crime.
Published in 2007, In the Woods won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and established Tana French as one of the most significant crime writers of her generation. It is the first of the Dublin Murder Squad series.
Discussion questions
- Rob Ryan cannot remember what happened to him in the woods as a child. How does French use this structural gap — and what is she saying about memory's relationship to trauma?
- The friendship between Rob and Cassie is the emotional heart of the novel. How does French develop it — and how does the investigation both test and destroy it?
- The novel has been criticised for not resolving its central mystery. How do you respond to this — is it a flaw or a deliberate formal choice?
- Rob is an unreliable narrator — we slowly realise how limited his self-knowledge is. How does French use this unreliability — to generate suspense, or to make a larger argument?
- In the Woods established French as a major crime writer. What does it do that distinguishes it from genre crime fiction — and what does it share with literary fiction?
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