In The Woods - Tana French

In The Woods by Tana French is not really the type of book I read anymore - gruesome, psychological thrillers with dead bodies detailed throughout - but I had read such good things about this book in the blogging world I just had to give it a go.

I'm really glad I did - even if I have had a few very strange and chaotic dreamy sleeps over the past few days!

The description of the book from the author's website

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children, gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled shoes, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox – his partner and closest friend – find themselves investigating a case with chilling links to that long-ago disappearance. Now, with only snippets of buried memories to guide him, Rob has the chance to unravel both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

This book was engaging to the point of distraction and while I found the ending a little disappointing I am really looking forward to dipping into Tana French's new book - The Likeness - I'm just going to wait for a time in my life when I don't need to rely on such good quality sleep!

Weekend Reading

I will admit to watching quite a bit of trashy TV this weekend but in amongst all of that brain drain I have been doing some reading as well.

Looking back on my reading choice for this weekend I think I might have a valid reason for watching endless re-runs of "Will and Grace" and "Sex and The City". I have been reading In The Woods by Tana French - a psychological thriller of the highest order! I hadn't heard of this book or author before reading about it in the blogging world but it seemed to be getting a lot of praise so I picked it up from my library last week. I have not been disappointed. The writing is tight and yet quite lyrical for this genre of novel (at least to my recollection). I used to read this type of book a lot in my teenage years but as an adult I have tended to steer away from them - I think my area of work has had a lot to do with this decision. In The Woods is actually quite confronting to me at the moment as I am about to begin work in a forensic mortuary/medicine service in a little over a months time - but I just can't stop reading this book - it's just too good!

So, I have obviously needed the trashy TV as a little light relief - good to keep a bit of balance in one's life I think!