When I hear the traditional rhyme 'in a dark, dark wood', my thoughts automatically turn to Janet and Allan Ahlberg's children's book series Funnybones, which always used to begin with a variation of that rhyme.
Where the Funnybones books were full of fun and weren't at all scary, Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood, which is introduced with the same traditional rhyme on its first page, is tense, full of suspense and shot through with a healthy dose of scariness.
Nora hasn't seen former best friend Clare in 10 years, so it's a surprise when she gets an invite to Clare's hen do. Reluctantly, Nora decides to go, and soon wishes she hadn't, when it's clear that the hen weekend is the woods is going to go very, very wrong.
I went into this book with a fairly strong dislike of hen dos (enforced fun, ugh) and came out of it never wanting to go to another one (sorry any friends of mine planning to get married). And that was before the actual thriller stuff happened. Ware is really good at creating a tension-filled atmosphere in which a disparate group of people come together and have to spend time getting along and being on top of their game.
