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THE ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME THRILLER FROM THE MILLION-COPY, SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

‘To say Tana French is one of the great thriller writers is really too limiting. Rather she’s simply this: a truly great writer’ GILLIAN FLYNN

‘[Crime fiction’s] biggest contemporary star’ GUARDIAN

‘One of the finest writers of contemporary crime fiction’ DAILY MAIL

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Three children went into the woods to play . . .

One came out.

When he was twelve years old, Adam Ryan went playing in the woods with his two best friends. He never saw them again.

Their bodies were never found, and Adam himself was discovered with his back pressed against an oak tree, his shoes filled with blood. He had no memory of what had happened.

Twenty years on, Rob Ryan – the child who came back – is a detective in the Dublin police force. He’s changed his name. No one knows about his past.

But when a little girl’s body is found at the site of the old tragedy, Rob is drawn back into his own haunted memories.

Knowing that he would be thrown off the case if his past were revealed, Rob takes a fateful decision to keep quiet, as he begins a desperate quest to solve the twenty-year-old mystery of the woods.

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Adapted, along with The Likeness, into the iconic BBC series Dublin Murders

EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL
ANTHONY AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL
BARRY AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL
MACAVITY AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL

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Praise for the talismanic Tana French and her novels

‘I can do you no greater favour in life than recommending that you read her books’ GUARDIAN

‘The most interesting, the most important crime novelist to emerge in the last ten years’ WASHINGTON POST

‘The most breathtakingly brilliant and close-to-perfect thriller I’ve read for a long time’ SOPHIE HANNAH

‘I’m a big fan of Tana French’ IAN RANKIN

‘This is a tour de force of suspense and storytelling. Comes closer to perfection than anything I’ve read in the last decade’ SARAH HILARY

‘French offers a masterclass in unreliability’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘An audacious departure for this immensely talented author . . . not to be missed’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘A wonderfully assured and beautifully written debut novel’ IRISH INDEPENDENT

‘I didn’t want it to end’ HARRIET TYCE

Publisher Review

An intricate and edgy top-notch psychological thriller. * Woman and Home * A rich multi-layered thriller * Choice * A splendid, page-turning debut. * She * Lyrical and haunting * Scotland on Sunday * This is a wonderfully assured and beautifully written debut novel, a multilayered psychological thriller that digs beneath the surface of ordinary lives and delivers excitement and insight in large helpings. * Irish Independent * Sharply written and insidiously creepy, this is a mesmerising read that grabs hold of the reader from the very first page and doesn't let go until well past two in the morning. * The Times *