A review by princehal
In the Woods by Tana French

3.0

torn between giving this 3 and 4 - for the most part i enjoyed reading it, but there is definitely a difference between allowing a traumatised character to behave unpredictably and badly and forcing uncharacteristic behaviour in order to isolate the protagonist and justify his errors. this is ESPECIALLY galling when the author then does a Bit where she has the protagonist say, "ah, but YOU also didn't know who the murderer was, right?? X fooled you too!" and... actually, no, X was behaving incredibly suspiciously all the way through, there was clearly something going on there.

despite my complaints, i *did* like the book, i enjoyed reading this after the likeness even though they are intended to be read the other way round, and tana french really does a wonderful job of evoking ireland.