In The Woods by Tana French - Book Report/Review Example

In The Woods Introduction The novel “In the Woods” is about a detective who is involved in solving a murder case of a twelve year old girl named, Katy. Rob Ryan is the protagonist as well as the narrator of the story. Becoming a detective agent was his dream; he loved his job, until he lands in the same playground where he had lost his playmates twenty years ago. There are only few people who can assess the harm that this investigation can bring to Ryan, and his colleague Cassie is one of them. Cassie did not stop Ryan from taking this case, because as his friend she wants to help him in solving all those unanswered questions that have been there in his mind for last twenty years. Whether Ryan will be able to do the justice to the task assigned to him, while solving a mystery of his past simultaneously. There seems to be no clear link between the abduction of his friends and the murder of Katy, except that they both occurred at the same place with a gap of twenty years. It appears as if Ryan is so disturbed by his past that he cannot analyze the situation critically. Dealing professional consignments with personal motives may end up in a blunder, and this is very much the case with Ryan’s search for the truth. Professional Realm In the start of the novel, the narrator explains the relationship between truth and detectives as that of a most desirable woman and her jealous lovers. He also warns the readers in the start that he craves for truth yet he lies (French, p.5). This is the paradox of the story, because Ryan has not revealed his identity of Adam Ryan, who was found in the woods in the summers of 1984. Therefore, Ryan’s services towards truth have been based on a lie. At the end of the novel Ryan receives the punishment for his dishonesty towards his lover, when he is removed from the case as well as he is restricted to a desk job. Ryan was after all not a good detective, because he did not respect the demands of his profession. A detective must use his mind while investigating a crime; he needs to be clear of all the prejudicial biases. The reason why Ryan was taken of the case was the fact that he was involved in similar incidence in the earlier part of his life. If he had been true to his profession, he would have not been transferred to the desk job; rather, the maximum that could have happened to him would be cancellation of investigation in only one case. Ryan took the matter personally, his conduct was based on logical fallacies, and as result of which he had to suffer. One can feel apologetic towards Ryan, but on rational grounds it was a blunder on professional level. Cassie must also be held convict for unprofessional conduct, since she knew who Ryan was, and she could have told this to superior members in the office, to take Ryan off the case, but she did not. Apparently, this was a favor from a friend, but this favor lead to disaster as far Ryan’s professional and emotional life is concerned. Sexual Realm The relationships that are established on the basis of friendship are expected to last long, however, when they break their damage is irrecoverable. The same was the case with the two leading investigators of Katy’s murder. Cassie and Ryan have been friends since they joined the investigation department; they have been a good team in solving numerous cases. However, this case did not turned out well for both of them, from friends they turned into sharing bed. Unfortunately, the act of making love did not eliminate the distance between the two, rather they became more distant. Ryan must be held more responsible for this separation, because he was not ready to carry on a relationship with his favorite colleague and best friend. Definitely, there were regrets on both the sides, but Ryan received most of it. Cassie was the only person in the office who shares Ryan’s personal secrets; moreover, she wanted to help him in solving his professional as well as personal problems. Both of the individuals must be held responsible because they had crossed the limits as professionals, at first they developed an informal relationship and then they moved on to solve an extrajudicial matter. Domestic Realm Family members always have an edge in criminal investigation, because they appear to be most concerned yet least suspects. At the start of the investigation there were several possibilities hypothesized for Katy’s murder, such as an attempt to curtail the anti-motorway construction activities of Katy’s father, or an act of debauchery by a pedophile. However, the confession of Rosalind regarding her sister’s murder gives the story an unpredictable turn, if one was considering that there was some link between Adam’s friends and Katy. However, the author has used a quite bold idea of incest. Rosalind explains her concerns regarding the relationship between Katy and their father. She tells Cassie that she hated Katy because their father loved her most (French, p. 315). Despite the fact that all three sisters were being sexually abused by their father, still there was a certain level of jealousy that evoked probably due to the lack of attention by their father. This competition between the sisters can be explained through Electra’s Complex, however, most psychologists have totally banished this concept, but the relationship between Katy and her sisters does show some similarities to the hypothesis postulated by the Psychoanalytical school of thought. The overall concept of child abuse is disturbing in its own sense, but when father becomes the abuser, it crosses all the limits of bestial conduct. Conclusion The problem with Ryan and Cassie was their unprofessional approach towards their job. Ryan was making illogical deductions from the various clues he received from the crime scene, while Cassie was supporting her friend’s thought. Both of them forgot that they were not dealing with the abduction of Ryan’s friends rather they were to look out for the criminals who killed Katy. This case definitely meant a lot to both of the investigators, but they were wrong in expecting too much out of this murder. They continued to go off track from the very first point of inception. They perceived the murder as an act of violence that was linked to Ryan’s past. During the investigation, Ryan became emotionally more dependent on Cassie, and their relationship started to transform. They started dealing the case as non-professionals; they took measures on personal grounds rather than professional ones. Where everything was going wrong, their bond started to suffer and eventually they had to walk away from each other. This break up did not cause emotional trauma to both, but it also affected their professional lives as well. After applying all their assumptions, predictions and expertise, they were able to identify the person who had poisoned Katy. It was her elder sister Rosalind who was yet to get eighteen year old. Overall one can conclude that the clues offered by the crime scene were misleading, but Cassie and Ryan created a labyrinth out of their own imagination, because they were using emotions and fallacies as arguments. Thus, it becomes pretty clear that when one gets involved personally in solving a problem at professional scale, he is bound to be misled. References French, Tana. In the Woods. Viking Penguin, 2007. 13 March 2014. . Read More