County prosecutor Paul Copeland is still getting over the loss of his sister twenty years ago - the night she walked into the woods, never to be seen again. Now, as Cope struggles to raise his six-year-old daughter alone and try one of the biggest cases of his career, evidence links him to a man who has been viciously murdered. The victim could be the boy who disappeared along with Cope's sister.
And, as hope rises that his sister could still be alive, dangerous secrets from his family's past threaten to tear apart everything he's been trying to hold together.
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County prosecutor Paul Copeland lost a lot of loved ones in his life: his sister was murdered 20 years ago, his mother left him and his father overnight, his wife died of cancer and recently his father died as well.
Raising his six-year-old daughter with the help of his sister-in-law he now faces an angry father who's son stands trial for the rape of a young stripper girl. The father promises to do everything possible to destroy Paul's life if his money offer isn't accepted and the plaintiff doesn't accept his money offer to spare his son jail.
On top of that the past reaches into the present when suddenly a long thought dead body surfaces. One who supposedly should have been dead for about 20 years - except that the dead body is fairly fresh.
20 years ago four teenagers were killed in the woods. Two bodies surfaced and two, including Paul's sister Camille, were never found. Now Paul's hope rises that his sister might have survived as well.
Something is going on - not only in Paul's life: 20 years ago Lucy Silverstein, now known as Lucy Gold, fell in love with Paul, the junior camp counselor in her father's camp. One night, the night that would change their lives forever. While Lucy and Paul were making out in the woods, four of the campers Paul was supposed to watch over, were killed in the very same woods.
Today, due to an assignment to her students, Lucy received an anonymous journal entry about the most traumatic event in their lives. Lucy is shocked to receive a journal entry describing the events in the woods, what she and Paul saw and never told to anyone. She reaches out to Paul, ripping open old but never really healed wounds.
Together they face the mystery of what really happened back then, who killed whom, who knows and ultimately: is it possible that Camille survived the tragedy as well ? And if yes, where is she ? Where does she hide ?
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What I like about Coben are his characters which almost always are believable and seem all to real. In all the stand alone Coben novels I've read or listened to, the main character could have been the beginning of a new series after the Myron Bolitar series hasn't been continued in a long time.
Coben knows how to do it: he spins a huge cobweb, with millions of different angles,
which meet in the middle to feast on the freshly caught fly.
The Woods exceeds the readers expectations by far.
Thrilling and gripping from the beginning to the end.
Rating:
Visit Harlan Coben.
Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Signet (April 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451221958
ISBN-13: 978-0451221957
Note:
Harlan Coben recently had his novel Tell No One made into a movie. Visit the movie site here.
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