The 2007 release from the pen of Harlan Coben, this is a standalone story and, while set in the same mileau and sharing a few secondary characters, not part of the Myron Bolitar series. Mainly that means one key character, the now chief investigator of the Essex County DA’s office Loren Muse, and cameos from the likes Cingle Shaker and Hester Prim plus being set in the same geography.
The Woods focuses on the newly-appointed Essex DA, Paul Copeland, a young single father (his beloved wife died of cancer a few years before this opens) and the eruption of another family tragedy from his youth. Unlike several of Harlan’s novels, Copeland is never really a suspect in the murders that occur in the story’s present but he is called upon to help solve them, plus find the truth of that earlier crime, to save his life and heal some gaping emotional wounds.
Coben has clearly hit his stride as an author with this, his 14th novel, and readers seem to agree as its been on the NY Times hardcover fiction bestseller list for four weeks now and Promise Me, his 2006 release, also spent several weeks on the paperback list after its recent debut.
I ate it up, finishing the whole book in big gulp on our return flight from New Jersey last week. Harlan really understands how to constantly set up plot traps, large and small, right to the end so that the readers are continually attempting to figure things out rather than coasting along with stretches of exposition. This is actually a key difference, for me, between mysteries and science fiction as mysteries should have very little explaining and ought to deliver the few required as active dialog or terse flashbacks.
Copeland’s one flaw as a character for me, shared among many of Coben’s protagonists, is an unbelievably deep love for his or her family. Don’t get me wrong, I love TS1, my parents, sister and her family and believe that family is incredibly important, but there is a line of how much an author ought to convey in this regard and Harlan generally goes well beyond it. The rationale for this is not clear to me and may simply reflect how he truly feels since much of his writing closely follows the “write what you know maxim” but I’d still like to see him tone it down. Having said that, it’s more like one of those positive negatives interview coaches urge us to prepare.
definitely recommended
BillSaysThis 