Tana French, In The Woods 1st edition rebound in 2019 in a deluxe leather binding, 1/12 lettered with an author profile, approved and signed by Tana French.

In the Woods and The Likeness, Tana’s second book are being developed for showing as Dublin Murder Squad Mysteries by the BBC.

Author profile: “Crime fiction these past twenty years has been evolving with skilled practitioners offering more psychological and chill-to-the-bone depth: unreliable narrators; past events throwing new light on current cases; participant observation with an undercover agent and exposing familial and inter-generational tensions, Tana French, with the Dublin Murder Squad novels, offers all of these plot techniques and more. Her approach is to see each novel as a unique story of intrigue and revelation of a group of characters. The central police figures tend to suffer professional and personal crises. One does not know whether they will stay the course. And the investigations, more broadly, ask questions about the state of things, and particularly how to deal with a sense of being out of control.

French has different narrators in each novel, drawn from the fictitious Murder Squad, with its male culture and few women – although in The Likeness and The Trespasser the female tec’ tells the story. French is passionate about having the reader consider various viewpoints – both within the Squad and the story generally. It adds to the realism and builds the suspense and mystery.

It all started with In the Woods, the debut novel published in 2007, beginning with a summer holiday of children playing in a wood back in the 80s. Only one child came out – Adam Ryan. Now called Rob, he and detective partner Cassie investigate the murder of a young girl found near the very same woods. Could the two events be connected? But in the first few pages Rob tells us he both craves truth and is also a liar (not a truthful narrator). Rob will have to dig deep to find his own answers, and through the story he is drawn back to the woods. This is a murder mystery and psychological thriller that is close to the edge of crime … where it becomes literature.

The six Murder Squad novels to date are all long, involving, atmospheric word-symphonies – full of emotive power and strands of meaning. Tana French is for her fans a titan comparable to perhaps – in a quite different sphere – Tchaikovsky in classical music. May the music play on”.

Issued in Spring 2019 with the original dust jacket.