IN THE WOODS

This is an amazing piece of work, taut, persuasive, and intricately constructed to stunning effect. On a summer evening in 1984 in a Dublin suburb, three 12-year-old best friends disappeared. One was eventually found in the woods alive but utterly traumatized, with amnesia, and shoes full of blood; the other two are never seen or heard of again. Twenty years later, the shattered boy, now a homicide detective in Dublin known as Rob Ryan, is assigned the case of a 12-year-old murdered girl found in the same wood. Steven Crossley does an expert job of creating and sustaining with harrowing precision Ryan’s inner and outer lives as the case creates something of a fugue state for him, and for the reader. A dazzling performance. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 07]