In the Woods

In the Woods is a 2007 mystery novel by Tana French about a pair of Irish detectives and their investigation of the murder of a twelve-year-old girl. It is the first book in French's Dublin Murder Squad series. The novel won several awards such as the 2008 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author, the 2008 Barry Award for Best First Novel, the 2008 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel, and the 2008 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. In the Woods and The Likeness, the second book of the Dublin Murder Squad series, are the inspiration for the BBC and Starz's 2019 Dublin Murders, an eight-episode series.

In 1984, three children (Jamie Rowan, Adam Ryan and Peter Savage) disappear into the woods near the Irish estate of Knocknaree. Hours later, Adam is found near-catatonic, standing against an oak tree with mysterious cuts across the back of his shirt, and his shoes and socks soaked in blood. Despite an intensive search, his friends Jamie and Peter are never found, and Adam has no memory of what happened. In the aftermath of the incident, Adam is sent to boarding school, where he begins using his middle name Robert and acquires an English accent.

Twenty years later, Ryan has become a detective in the elite Dublin murder squad. Ryan and Detective Cassie Maddox, his best friend and partner, are assigned to investigate a murder in Knocknaree. The victim, 12-year old Katy Devlin, was discovered on a ceremonial stone table at the site of an archaeological dig run by Dr. Ian Hunt and his university students. Forensics determine Katy was attacked and suffocated Monday night, and that the body was kept somewhere else before it was moved to the dig site Tuesday night and discovered Wednesday morning. Ryan and Maddox interview students Damien Donnelly and Mel Jackson, who discovered the body, and Mark Hanly, the student supervisor who is impatient to return to work as there is only a month left until the site will be destroyed to make way for a motorway. Damien tells them he saw a bald man in a tracksuit walking on the main road on Monday evening. The detectives also discover a campsite in the woods overlooking the dig.

Ryan and Maddox inform Katy's family of her death – father Jonathan, mother Margaret, Katy's older sister Rosalind, and her twin sister Jessica. They are disturbed by the family dynamic, as Rosalind is overly sexual for her age and Jessica is silent and pathologically shy. After learning that Katy, who was set to attend the prestigious Royal Ballet School the following month, suffered from unexplained vomiting and diarrhoea for years, they begin to suspect her parents of child abuse. An autopsy reveals Katy was sexually violated after her death with a wooden instrument. Maddox notes that Katy's murder seems to have been tentative, and the violation half-hearted, and speculates that they aren't looking for a paedophile. When questioned, Mark admits to camping in the woods periodically to keep vigil over the site, which he regards as sacred, but he angrily denies involvement in Katy's death and has an alibi for Tuesday night when the body was moved. He admits to the detectives he was camping on Monday night, and saw someone with a flashlight moving across the field around the time Katy died.

Crime scene techs discover a plastic hairtie and an old drop of blood near where Katy's body was found, which Ryan recognizes may be traces from the 1984 incident. Despite the possibility that the cases are linked, he chooses to conceal his true identity from the squad's supervisor, Superintendent O’Kelly, knowing he would be removed from the case if he admitted the connection. Maddox agrees to go along with his decision. Detective Sam O’Neill is assigned to investigate the possibility that Katy was killed as a warning to Jonathan, the organizer of a "Move the Motorway" campaign attempting to protect the archaeological site, and begins to run down a series of threatening phone calls Jonathan received. Ryan and Maddox become friends with O’Neill, and the three begin to spend their evenings together at Maddox's apartment working on the case. Rosalind brings a scared Jessica to meet with Ryan, and she reluctantly confirms seeing the same tracksuited figure that Damien described. In an attempt to get Rosalind to open up about possible abuse, Ryan tells her that two of his childhood friends disappeared, but she still refuses to say anything.

As the weeks progress, Ryan begins regaining memories from his childhood, and also becomes increasingly irritable and dependent on alcohol. He remembers seeing a teenage Jonathan and his friends rape one of their girlfriends in the woods, but while Jonathan admits to the rape, and to sensing the presence of a monstrous figure in the woods during the incident, he insists that he had nothing to do with Katy's death or the children's disappearance. While interrogating Jonathan, Ryan becomes enraged and nearly attacks him before Maddox intervenes. Maddox tells him the story of when she left university after being emotionally manipulated by one of her friends, a psychopath who turned the school against her and threatened to rape her. Ryan is sympathetic but notes to the reader that he didn't understand what she was actually telling him. Meanwhile, O’Neill discovers that the phone calls came from a builder with a lot of money riding on the motorway's construction. He taps the builder's phone, and learns to his dismay that his politician uncle has taken bribes from the builder to arrange the motorway. When he goes to O’Kelly with this information, O’Kelly orders him to destroy the evidence and forget about it, lest O’Neill's uncle end their careers.

Finally, Ryan returns to the woods and camps there overnight in an attempt to regain his lost memory of the day his friends vanished. He remembers that he kissed Jamie, and that Peter concocted a plan for them to run away and prevent Jamie from having to go to boarding school. The three of them were interrupted by someone in the woods and sensed a figure like the one Jonathan described. They began to run away, and Ryan fell behind and watched his friends hop a stone wall. Ryan wakes up from his memory, and has a panic attack. He flees to his car, convinced something in the wood is watching him, and notes to the reader that by running away from the truth, he lost the memory of his friends' last day forever. Ryan calls Maddox to pick him up, and the two sleep together for the first time. Afterward, Ryan becomes convinced Maddox will want a relationship with him and refuses to speak with her. Their relationship deteriorates rapidly. Rosalind visits Ryan during this period, and senses the tension between them; overwhelmed, Ryan nearly kisses Rosalind before stopping himself. Angry at his rejection, she storms away.

While observing the dig in Knocknaree, Ryan realizes the instrument used to violate Katy's body was a trowel. The police re-examine the scene and discover that the dig's finds shed was the murder site. The only people who had keys to the shed were Dr. Hunt, Mark, and Damien. Under interrogation by Ryan and Maddox, Damien breaks down and admits to killing Katy on Monday, then hiding the body when he realized someone was camping in the woods. He moved the body on Tuesday and pretended to discover it to explain the presence of any trace evidence. However, he refuses to discuss his motive. Maddox realizes that Damien lying about the tracksuited figure implicates Rosalind, who coached Jessica into verifying the story. Unwilling to believe that Rosalind could have anything to do with the crime, Ryan blows up at Maddox, accusing her of jealousy, and refuses to participate in questioning Rosalind.