In the Woods is an audiobook by Tana French, narrated by Steven Crossley. The unabridged Audible edition runs 20 hrs 24 mins.
Publisher’s Summary
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLER OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
“[Tana French is] required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence, and ingenious plotting.” —The New York Times
The bestselling first novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series, with over a million copies sold, that launched Tana French, “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post).
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 sneakers, 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 chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.
Richly atmospheric and stunning in its complexity, In the Woods is utterly convincing and surprising to the end.
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 20 hrs 24 mins
- Publisher: Penguin Audio
- Release year: 2007
- Audible category: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense / Crime Fiction / Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Listener Ratings
In the Woods holds an average listener rating of 4.1/5 from 18418 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.4/5
- Story: 4.1/5
- 5-star ratings: 44% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
4/5 stars — “A near-flawless audiobook (but for one thing…)”
One of the best-written and best read combinations around. I put off reading Tana French for a long time because I’ve been suckered too often, but when I was barely 1/4 way through Part One (of 3), I sat down and ordered the next two books she has written. The writing is THAT good. The story is elegant and moving and convincing, and the characters are more-real than most of the people in your own life. Steven Crossley has an amazing, rich and varied voice, an almost-beautiful thing to hear.Here comes the flaw. This is a book which takes place in Ireland, in small town Ireland, amongst working class Irish people. ALL of them are Irish, but NONE of their accents are. The first-person narrator explains away his English accent by conveniently spending his teen years in English boarding school, but what of everyone else? It might be a sin for an English actor to attempt an Irish accent and do it badly, and I do love Crossley’s voice, but surely there are Irish narrators looking for work? I’ve enjoyed many other Irish novels read by Irish readers — in fact it is one reason I choose an audiobook over the print version sometimes. So, the English reader loses a star for this otherwise brilliant book.
— Wild Wise Woman, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Nicely done.”
NOt sure how to write this without being overly sexist so…This is a book written by a female with a male lead that does not seem as if it was written by a female. Hmmm…what does that mean?
Well, to me, I find that female writers have a different sense of male characters than females. Mars and Venus perhaps? Ultimately, I find too often that males are more of a characiture (sp?) than recognizable. Now many would say this is true, and perhaps male writers do the same to females characters.
BUT! I gambled on this book, hoping for something not to obvious and bombastic. I was delighted. Characters are developed by their relationships with others, not simply described. Multiple layers of plot keep you going in circles, although the clues are put out for you to see. This is like a book version of "Usual Suspects." Read it a second time and it is a different book altogether.
Narration is strong. Good pace and inflection.
— danpri, Audible listener
3/5 stars — “Too long”
I would have given 3.5 stars if it had been possible as I enjoyed the story but the main character’s self wallowing pity got on my nerves. At least 2 hours could have been saved if this had been kept down to the necessary minimum. Shame there weren’t any Irish accents as I tended to forget that it was set in Ireland. Worth listening to, but don’t tempt it if you’re feeling depressed as it’ll send you over the edge.— Wanda, Audible listener
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