LOVE YA, HATE YA, SEE YA

I just finished a mystery novel I found equally engaging and dissatisfying--so of course it must become part of the blog. It was recommended by one of my colleagues (thanks, Krista!) who has a keen sense of worthwhile reads--and I agree with her that this was a good book. Except for the part of me that became really aggravated by the way the book ends. Hence this post's title.

I promise there are no spoilers, so read ahead without worry.

The novel is In The Woods and was written by Tana French, published by Viking in 2007. It is set in the fictitious Dublin suburb of Knocknaree in the present day. A promising young ballerina, Katharine "Katy" Devlin, is found viciously murdered on an archeological dig very close to her home. The primary investigators are Detectives Rob Ryan and Cassandra Maddox, a pair of early thirty-somethings whose lack of years is belied by their highly laudable solve rate.

The twist in this tale is that over two decades before, three youngsters ventured into the great woods that border Knocknaree, with only one of them ever to be seen again. The sole survivor is none other than Detective Ryan (who had gone by Adam at that time); after being discovered wearing shoes saturated with blood (not his own) and suffering from significant amnesia, young Master Ryan is bundled off to boarding school and his parents move from their home.

Ryan is determined not only to remain on the Devlin case, but also to use his unique position in the contemporary investigation to help recover his own long-absent memory of what happened to him as a child. Katy's family is hauntingly memorable: Jonathan, her father, was a local teen delinquent at the time of Jamie and Peter's (Ryan's friends) vanishing (he does not, however, recognize Ryan as a grown-up). Her mother, Margaret, is a basket case. Elder sister Rosalind is a study in precociousness for her age (nearing the end of high school), and her identical twin sister Jessica is mentally imbalanced.

They sound like a fun bunch, don't they?

This novel is French's first work of fiction and I was impressed with her storytelling prowess. She develops characters I found to be both credible and sympathetic. As he probes further into Katy's death (simultaneously pulling out more and more heretofore-lost information from his own mind), he descends into a nightmarish maelstrom of trauma-related angst and, for a lengthy spell, seems poised on the brink of a complete mental breakdown. Poignantly, he can't seem to figure out what is happening to himself, or even why--and the reader's heart breaks as he unwittingly alienates himself from everyone in his life as a result.

My principle complaint is in the ending and in a thread of the storyline that never receives what I consider its proper due. I really don't think of myself as one of those readers (or film watchers, for that matter) who expect and/or demand that by the end of the plot, everything is handed over in neat, tidy little boxes, with all the loose ends beautifully brought together. Real life is certainly not like that, and most of the time I find fiction that follows the same contours to be patently acceptable.

However, In The Woods would certainly have benefited from a firmer sense of closure. At the point where I was roughly 75 pages from the ending, I commented to one of my colleagues here at the Main that I hoped that one issue raised in the book would be addressed by its conclusion. "No dice", as Charles Bronson would have stated flatly.

Not even one die.

Overall, though, I would recommend it. I also believe it would make for a great film treatment and already have the cast list assembled in my mind. I am currently perusing French's second book, The Likeness, and believe I will keep her as one of my regular mystery authors.