The Woods

The Woods
By Harlan Coben


Product Description
Twenty years ago, four teenagers at summer camp walked into the woods at night. Two were found murdered, and the others were never seen again. Four families had their lives changed forever. Now, two decades later, they are about to change again.

For Paul Copeland, the county prosecutor of Essex, New Jersey, mourning the loss of his sister has only recently begun to subside. Cope, as he is known, is now dealing with raising his six- year-old daughter as a single father after his wife has died of cancer. Balancing family life and a rapidly ascending career as a prosecutor distracts him from his past traumas, but only for so long. When a homicide victim is found with evidence linking him to Cope, the well-buried secrets of the prosecutor’s family are threatened.

Is this homicide victim one of the campers who disappeared with his sister? Could his sister be alive? Cope has to confront so much he left behind that summer twenty years ago: his first love, Lucy; his mother, who abandoned the family; and the secrets that his Russian parents might have been hiding even from their own children. Cope must decide what is better left hidden in the dark and what truths can be brought to the light.


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Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #10204 in Books
Published on: 2007-04-17
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
416 pages

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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of this disappointing stand-alone from bestseller Coben (Promise Me), Paul "Cope" Copeland, acting county prosecutor for Essex County, N.J., and Lucy Gold, his long-lost summer camp love, are still haunted by a fateful night, decades earlier, when their nighttime tryst allowed some younger campers, including Cope's sister, to venture into the nearby forest, where they apparently fell victim to the Summer Slasher, a serial killer. Cope's intense focus on a high-profile rape prosecution of some wealthy college students shifts after one of the Slasher's victims, whose body was never found, turns up as a recent corpse in Manhattan, casting doubt on the official theory of the old case. Cope's own actions on that night again come under scrutiny, even as the highly placed fathers of the men he's prosecuting work to unearth as many skeletons as possible to pressure him into dropping the rape case. Less than compelling characters fail to compensate for a host of implausibilities. Hopefully, Coben will return to form with his next book. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
In this stand-alone legal thriller, Harlan Coben presents a riveting courtroom drama, creates riveting players, and delves into family secrets, love, loss, mistakes, and betrayal. A few critics noted that while The Woods falls into Coben's typical formula—a past crime affects innocent people in the present—it still comes off as fresh. The trial scenes, Cope's ruminations on what really happened that night, and the back-and-forth narration are particularly well done. Only the Washington Post faulted the novel's cheap thrills, improbable revelations, and awkward conclusion. Nevertheless, few readers will remain unaffected by its emotional heft.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
I suppose there could be a better reader of this tense, complex, thoroughly entertaining novel than Scott Brick, but it's hard to see how. Let's see, he mispronounces Wilkes Barre (the final "e" is long, not silent), and maybe he overplays the emotion in the scene in which Paul's uncle, a former KGB spy, reveals that the body just found in the woods is not Paul's sister, it's . . . but it would be a shame to spoil a single twist of this double-helix plot. The story's first-person narrator, Paul Copeland, prosecutor of Essex County, New Jersey, is trying a rape case, the defendants' fathers are blackmailing him, and a boy supposedly murdered 20 years ago with Paul's sister turns up mature and freshly dead. Unturnoffable. B.G. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


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Customer Reviews
COBEN DOES IT AGAIN!
Harlan Coben has done it again. Another slick, page-turning thriller with a truly satisfying conclusion. While not usually a fan of double story lines, I felt they worked here because both stories are interesting and each reveals aspects of the main character's personality and moral code both of which are vital to the novel. Coben is a terrific writer who never disappoints. Highly recommended.

Main Story Sidetracked
When reading this story I found the events in woods of the title took second place to the author's re-writing of the Duke rape case. Apparently the author didn't like how the case really worked out by showing up both a grasping local DA and the narrow minded arrogance of the Duke faculty. He decided to write how it "should" have turned out. In this version the rich white students at a New England college are guilty (of course). The underaged, unwed mother, crack prostitute testifies in court with voice more appropriate to Ruth Gader Ginsburg than an uneducated teenager. I gather the author wasn't about to attempt a ghetto accent and get people mad at him. The girl of course wins everyone over with the power of her story. I had to put the book down. It was just Coben indulging in his liberal fantasy.

Well Written & Wonderfully Entertaining -- 4.5 stars!!
Warning! Once you start this book, you'll be hard pressed to put it down. It's like a bag of chips or peanuts. You can't have just one! This is a well written, fast paced suspense novel that beats anything [well almost] that TV offers. I liked that it wasn't pretentious. Paul Copeland is so sympathetic! Coben's characters are well drawn and finely nuanced. I was abe to picture Cope, as well as so many other characters. [Hickory was too much! So funny...] Some chapter endings left me gasping! This book engages from page one. You'll visit the woods, the camp, Lucy's apt. & office, the court, prison...Coben takes the reader on an unbelievable ride. This book offers so much -- love, death, murder, parent/child relationships, espionage, etc. If you want to be immediately engaged in suspense, buy this book! The minute I reached page 250 [which took less than 1 reading], I immediately ordered more of Harlan Coben's works. I'm stocked for a couple of weeks. Buy & enjoy!!