Marika G. (marika) reviewed on 3/19/2009 + 20 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

Paul Copeland is a county prosecutor raising his young daughter alone after the premature death of his beloved wife. Early in this novel, Paul recognizes a man brought into the morgue as a teenager believed to have been murdered 20 years earlier in the woods at camp. One of the other teenagers murdered that summer was Paul's sister. With this new evidence that some teenagers may have survived the murders, Paul attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearances in the hopes of finding out what happened to his own sister that summer night in the woods.

This was not my favorite Harlan Coben novel. As with all his books, The Woods is very plot driven and has minimal character development. But, even more so than his other novels, this one seemed immature. In the book, Paul's love for his daughter was superficial and forced, as was his attraction for his camp girlfriend with whom he reunites to solve the murder mystery. And, as the events played themselves out, the story began to seem a bit too far-fetched to me.

The Woods was a quick and easy read with a lot of action that kept the story moving. But, I have no doubt Harlan Coben took about the same amount of time to write the book as I did to read it.

It was fun, but forgettable.

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