Excellent story, flows beautifully, grips you from the start. Harlan Coben really knows how to develop his character is, and takes you along for the ride. Great from start to finish.

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Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living in the woods. He still doesn't know where he comes from, and Naomi Pine is now missing. Naomi was bullied at school. Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, asks Wilde to use his unique skills to help find Naomi. Wilde must venture back into the community where he has never fit in in order to find Naomi. I loved reading about Hester again, a character from Coben's Myron Bolitar series. This book was very entertaining with twists that kept me interested. It had great humor that Coben is noted for and interesting characters. The ending was a complete surprise that I did not see coming. I'm looking forward to visiting again with Wilde in the near future.

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Harlan Coben's latest thriller, The Boy from the Woods, is mostly about how the search for a bullied teenager ends up leading down a trail of kidnapping, blackmail, political shenanigans, and internet influencers that reveals some very nasty secrets. As usual, virtually everybody in the book has something to hide, and Coben keeps the twists coming to the very last line. So on that level, it's a 3-star read, marked down from 4 because the whole âboy from the woodsâ angle really doesn't have much to do with the story and because it takes over 100 pages to get into the real nitty-gritty.

Now -- anybody here remember a movie called âWag the Dog'? It was a 1997 black comedy about how easily information could be manipulated to create totally false scenarios.

The reason I bring this up is that the real heart of this pseudo-thriller is a segment that's kind of a âDog the Wagâ, if you will, wherein a public figure puts together a lightning campaign to discredit a genuine video. This time, it's not the images that are manipulated, but the social media response to it. And it is scarier, frankly, than anything Coben (or Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft or Dean Koontz) ever wrote.

So if you get the chance, pick this book up. I don't care whether you read the rest of it or not, but please read Chapter 31. And think about it every time you see a video posted on the internet, or hear an opinion piece that tries to push every button you own.

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Ok, not one of his better books.

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This book, while interesting, lacked the suspense I expect from Mr. Coben.
I loved the fascinating character Wilde but wanted more about his time growing up in the wild. Is there a sequel ?

However I did enjoy the story but it was a little tame.

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Absolutely loved this story. Gripping from the first page to literally the last.
Well developed characters and multiple stories going on and developing to converge together for the holy crap really moment. It had laugh out loud moments, I do that moments and wow, did that happen moments, making it a wonderful read.

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Great read!

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