*Minor spoilers throughout* 
 3.5 stars. This turned out to be sort of a frustrating read for me. It started beautifully. Tana French has a gift for writing, and I kind of wish she had put it to use on a different subject. For a murder mystery it reads like poetry half the time. Which is pretty impressive considering she's dealing with such a grim subject. 
 The characters are all wonderfully human and flawed and full of life. The friendship between Cassie and Rob started out as something beautiful and wonderful and rare. Sam was adorable in his own childish way. And the result was that the actual investigation sort of took a backseat to the relationships between the characters. Which sometimes sort of sucked. We witness a lot of dinners and a LOT of drinking. (By the way- can someone clarify for me whether the Irish really drink that much?) 
 The murder investigation itself wasn't all that interesting. Most of the stuff Sam did wasn't relevant and you and Cassie and Rob sort of knew it all along. The twist really wasn't much of a twist. I don't know if French really believes she had us fooled (Rob actually says this, "she fooled me, and she fooled you too....") or if it's just something thrown in to make us understand the depth of Rob's... well I don't know what you would call it. Naivete? Betrayal? Gullibility? Vulnerability? I'm not sure. I guess vulnerable is probably the right word. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that the twist wasn't good enough, it was that French wrote the culprit's character almost too well. Who knows- maybe I've come across this sort of thing myself before and you just know it when you see it. Maybe I've just watched too much Law and Order. 
 What kept me turning the page was the expectation that the old case would get solved. It never seemed like the two cases were related at all, but Rob kept going back to it, and weird things started to unravel, and I was expecting some supernatural horrifying conclusion to it all. I really, really, wanted that part to be solved. More than I wanted for Rob to stop being such an idiot and fix stuff with Cassie, I wanted his friends to be found. I wanted him to remember. I wanted to know why at least three witnesses heard that strange sound in the woods. That's what it's called right? "In The Woods"? Wouldn't you expect for that thing that happened in the woods to come to some conclusion? Well it doesn't, and if that's why you're reading than go ahead and put the book down or don't start it at all. You'll be left just as frustrated as I am. 
 I can't help it. I'm drawn to the supernatural and that was half of why I picked this book up. I think the second book in the series is also supernatural sounding and I probably won't bother with it because I have a feeling those threads won't be explained either. 
 I gave it four stars for the characters and the writing, which as I said several times were really wonderful. But when you get right down to it, my personal opinion is that the story itself kind of sucked. It's more a commentary on the human condition then it is a story, which is fine, but not what I bargained for. I saw a few reviews where people said they were heartbroken or sad about the ending, and truthfully I don't understand why. I think the whole point is that Rob is fucked up. As he should be. Everything points to this. Rob is fucked up, Cassie is too a little, but she dodged a bullet and came out happy. And for that I'm happy for her. I have no sympathy for Rob after how he treated Cassie. Why should I be sad? Sure I'd have liked to seen them together in the end, but he did it to himself, and I can only feel so much sympathy for things people do to themselves. That's life. 
 Anyway- if writing and characters are your thing this book is probably for you. If mysteries are your thing then you should probably stay away. The strange supernatural elements were just window dressing to hide the basic everyday run of the mill mystery plot. And lots of the time it felt like the detectives were sort of going in the wrong direction the whole time. Their leads and lines of inquiry felt thin and flimsy, and as a result the middle became kind of boring and tiresome. I might check out "The Likeness". But I'm not rushing to pick it up anytime soon.