KEY POINTS:
One of the first things that struck me about this book was its pages. With a cover image of gloomy forest covered in a mass of scratches, the sense of doom is enhanced by the edges of the pages being inked in black - this is a novel that is unapologetically dark and brooding right from the get-go.
Tana French, a trained Irish actress turned first-time novelist, has written a murder mystery but balanced it all on complicated characters and fleshed it out with their relationship dramas and inner confusions. Plus, just for a lark, she's thrown in an extra mystery, so there's plenty to keep the reader occupied.
The story centres round Adam Ryan who has lived with a secret his whole life. When he was 12 he and his two best friends ran into the woods together. Hours later, Adam was discovered clutching a tree, his shoes filled with his best friend's blood, and odd rips in his t-shirt. He remembered nothing and his friends were gone forever.
Ryan grows up to become a detective and is put on the case of 12-year-old girl found dead next to the very same woods where his ordeal took place. With his partner Cassie, he takes on the case and searches for answers to his own mystery as well.
With its Irish idiosyncrasies, and the author's ability to paint her characters in believable detail, this is a thinking-woman's murder mystery that kept me reading well past bedtime.
*Hachette, $36.99
- Detours, HoS
