Into the Woods, to Grandmother's House, oh wait, that's not right

In The Woods by Tana French At the age of 12, Adam Ryan goes into the woods with his 2 best friends, Jamie and Peter and he is the only one that ever comes out. With no memory of what happened, Ryan is covered in someone’s blood and shaken to his core never to be the same kid again. Many years later, Ryan, now Rob Ryan, detective in the elite Murder Squad of Dublin, is handed a case of a child who has turned up murdered in his home town of Knocknaree. Ryan and his partner Cassie are by chance given the case unbeknownst to his superior or the rest of the squad that he is the survivor of the Knocknaree case of many years ago. While trying to solve the case, Ryan is also trying to remember and unravel his forgotten past. I hate to say that this book did not live up to my expectations, but honestly, it didn’t have a chance. There were so many negatives lined up against this book from the beginning, it was unreal. First of all, this book is all over the blogging world. It comes highly recommended by most blogs and so therefore, before I started it, I had a lot of pumped up information about what a great read it is. Second, I have just finished two amazing books, that were moving, inspiring, and nail biting thrillers and therefore because of reading placement, this book paled in comparison. Third, and this last reason is completely and utterly my fault. I didn’t finish the book before book club. After 9 months of reading even if I could not attend, I was unable to finish the book and therefore the ending was spoiled for me. After you hear who’s the murderer in a murder mystery, how can there be a twist at the end? If I hadn’t read The Thirteenth Tale and The Shadow of the Wind in the last two months and if I could have squeezed in a mindless fun book in-between all of those books, and if I would have finished it before the spoilers, then I would have enjoyed this book a lot more. It’s not often that I read a book and don’t like the main character, but I didn’t like Rob. He was a pansy and I didn’t enjoy him when he was going through his womanly moments. I wonder if that has something to do with a woman author writing from a man’s perspective. I’m not sure that it works. What I did like about this book was the character development. I enjoyed Cassie and Rob’s fun tongue and cheek interactions, I liked how close their friendship grew and I loved the self realization that Rob went through in this investigation. I have ordered the second book on Paper Book Swap and I will continue with the series when time permits. I hate that the circumstances did not allow for me to love this book, because if the odds wouldn’t have been against me from the beginning, I think I would have loved this book! What do you think? Has this ever happened to you before? Have you read this book and totally disagree with me? Keep reading my friends!