In the Woods

Clarion Award, 2007

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781529335514

Price: £9.99

ON SALE: 10th October 2019

Genre: Crime & Mystery / Suspense

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When he was twelve years old, Adam Ryan went playing in the woods with his two best friends. He never saw them again. Their bodies were never found, and Adam himself was discovered with his back pressed against an oak tree and his shoes filled with blood. He had no memory of what had happened.

Twenty years on, Rob Ryan – the child who came back – is a detective in the Dublin police force. He’s changed his name. No one knows about his past. Then a little girl’s body is found at the site of the old tragedy and Rob is drawn back into the mystery. Knowing that he would be thrown off the case if his past were revealed, Rob takes a fateful decision to keep quiet but hope that he might also solve the twenty-year-old mystery of the woods.

Reviews

Sharply written and insidiously creepy, this is a mesmerising read that grabs hold of the reader from the very first page and doesn't let go until well past two in the morning.
The Times
This is a wonderfully assured and beautifully written debut novel, a multilayered psychological thriller that digs beneath the surface of ordinary lives and delivers excitement and insight in large helpings.
Irish Independent
Lyrical and haunting
Scotland on Sunday
A splendid, page-turning debut.
She
A rich multi-layered thriller
Choice
An intricate and edgy top-notch psychological thriller.
Woman & Home
Unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting
The New York Times
The most breathtakingly brilliant and close-to-perfect thriller I've read for a long time. I stayed up until three in the morning two nights running unable to put it down.
Sophie Hannah
Slick, sophisticated - and a fine one to devour as the nights draw in . . . if it stirs in you the urge to devour the French originals . . . I promise you will find something even more richly delicious there.
Lucy Mangan, Guardian