It is impossible to even attempt to record the number of crime/mystery/thriller novels out there, and nearly all of them follow a similar pattern - something horrible happens, maybe an assault, maybe a rape, maybe a murder, and relatives/(police) detectives/whoever have to solve the mystery. This procedure has been applied thousands of times, and although exceptions to the usual pattern can, of course, always be found within the genre, they are rarely to be discovered. 
 But then there are books like "In the Woods". Tana French's debut novel starts off with a murder investigation, and it is actually one of those mentioned mystery novels. Someone dies, and two police detectives - Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox - have to solve the case. But it is so much more than that. Over the course of 700 pages *, "In the Woods" deals with human abysses, tortured minds and souls, deep memories and all too human fears. Tana French immediately captured me with her beautiful writing style and allowed me to enter a world full of treachery, hate ... and love. But it wasn't sad all the time. The author managed to include loosening and exhilarating scenes now and then, and then there was also the great relation between Rob and Cassie, two friends full of trust and closeness to each other, and you know immediately that it is only friendship which exists between the two of them. But what a fascinating friendship it is. 
 Although I can understand why people complain about the ending, this book was so intense, so sad, so funny, so mysterious and so thrilling, with some of the most realistic and interesting characters I've ever encountered in the thriller genre, that I will excuse her choices - just like in real life, not everything can ever truly be elucidated. The tension was not created out of action scenes, horrendous incidents or thrilling passages (which is why it might have dragged on for some parts of the story). No, the tension was created by psychological torture, by letting you feel empathy for Rob and just want to embrace him. Rob wasn't the perfect likeable character; he made more than one, more than ten, more than hundred mistakes, but doesn't everybody make mistakes? This much is certain: Tana French succeeded with making Rob one of my all-time favorite characters, but she succeeded even more with making me want to read more about the Dublin Murder Squad. 
 * I've read the German translation in the Hardcover format, which was 330 pages longer than the number of pages Goodreads mentions for the English original. The book definitely did not feel as long as 700 pages, but it was still such a heavy edition that you could probably commit murder with it.