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Mar 03, 2017Dreamstime rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
A young boy emerges from a deep forest but his two best friends do not. When the boy reaches adulthood he becomes a detective. Now he and his partner are faced with solving the brutal murder of a young woman in the same forest. The detective's name and family residence has changed. Only Cassie, his partner, knows about his past. The story mixes a police procedural with a key detective central to the case who is constantly at the border of an emotional meltdown. I found his constant hand-wringing and the deception of his superiors about this personal connection to the case quite distracting. I gradually grew to dislike the protagonist. What kept me going to finish this long story was the terrific quality of the prose. French writes well, but in the service of a poor story. If you want a tale about a detective who might be suffering from PTSD who loves returning to sit on the self pity pot, then IN THE WOODS is for you.