In the Woods - Tana French - 4.5 stars

I decided on reading this book as a buddy read with a few people as part of a Book-a-thon. I had this series for quite some time and figured it was time to get started on it. Now that I finished the first book, I am glad that I decided to jump on it, but not without a few struggles.

In this story we have Detective Robert Ryan and Detective Cassie Maddox, partners, trying to solve the mystery of a murdered girl, Katy Devlin, and the possibility of this surrounding a mystery of 2 missing children 30 years ago. Det. Ryan was involved in the mystery of the missing children and could not remember anything as he was just 12 years old at the time that his friends turned up missing, while he was found. Are the two cases connected? That is what they need to figure out so they can catch the murderer of young Katy Devlin.

I really liked the plot of this story a lot. Although it lacked a lot of action, it was still pretty exciting to read. I did stumble around a bit in parts of the story because it seemed to drag, but there are a lot of authors I just love who have this issue of wordiness, so I felt like I had to give this author and book a chance. Especially since the writing is beautiful and the characters amazing. So no the book is not fluid and easy to read, but the writing is amazing, especially since this is a debut novel. I hate that a part of the story was not solved, but I look forward to that coming to light in future installments. I also felt that there was some injustice served as well, but I can understand the reasoning.

The characters were definitely my favorite part and this is why I think it was important to read this first book. They develop so well throughout the story and I feel like they will continue to develop throughout the story. The best thing about the characters is that they are completely flawed and have such many issues. The author lets us into their heads so well that we can't help but feel all of their emotions. Characters, to me, are the most important part of a story. I appreciate what the author gave to us with the characters in this story.

I implore mystery lovers to read this series, to make it through the first book and not give up on it because you will not be disappointed. I am giving this book a 4.5 star rating, it would have been 5 had it not dragged in the middle of it.