Cast Fear Aside and Take to ‘The Woods’

Review by Chris Manson May 31, 2007 Issue

Skeletons in your closet, itching to come outside.
–Stevie Wonder, late ‘80s rhythm-and-blues song

In Harlan Coben’s The Woods, it seems like every character has a skeleton in his or her closet, from the tortured prosecutor to the imprisoned serial killer whose guilt is not certain. You can change your name and hair color, hide inside a bottle of vodka, and throw yourself into your career — but the deep dark past will always come back to haunt you.

Coben distinguishes himself with his latest thriller. I’ve never found his novels less than satisfying, but the generic titles of earlier works tended to cause much confusion in my attempts to recommend Coben to friends and perfect strangers. Rather than trying to remember if I’d actually read Just One Look or Tell No One, I’d just say, “Oh, the one with the yellow cover, that was great. However, if you’ve never read him before, you should try the blue one first.” With The Woods, no such confusion is likely to occur.

Decades ago, Paul Copeland’s sister and three other teenagers wandered off into the woods at summer camp. Two of the bodies were discovered, but Copeland’s sister and another boy were never accounted for. Paul’s father never gave up hope, and the boy often accompanied Dad and his shovel out to the woods during the old man’s many futile attempts at closure. Three months after Paul’s father tells his son from his deathbed, “We still need to find her,” a body turns up at the morgue. Paul is convinced it’s the missing boy, and that his sister may still be alive.

Paul is now a county prosecutor with political ambitions. He’s also a single father, having lost his wife to cancer — all while living with mountains of guilt over his sister’s disappearance. Lucy Gold, the daughter of the camp’s owner and Paul’s love interest during that awful summer, is now a college professor. She receives anonymous student assignments by email, one of which gets all the details of her romantic tryst with Paul just right. Paul and Lucy reunite after 20 years, but it’s no love fest despite Lucy’s hippie lineage.

As if this weren’t enough to keep you frantically turning pages, Coben works in an exciting court case in which the author out-Grishams our so-called king of legal fiction. The case involves a black stripper-prostitute, a pair of frat boys accused of rape, a rich father who will do whatever it takes to keep his son out of jail, and a flamboyant defense attorney named Flair Hickory. There’s also a sexy detective named Cingle Shaker. Despite all the dark material, Coben manages to keep his sense of humor intact.

The Woods ought to convince even the most jaded suspense enthusiasts that Coben is a skilled storyteller. A less generous writer would spread all this strong material over another novel or two, but Coben gets it all in at just a little over 400 pages. He takes a number of done-to-death elements — serial killers, missing persons, and legal drama — and makes you feel like you’re reading it for the first time. And he keeps those startling — and somehow believable —twists coming at you right up until the devastating ending.

Coben’s latest comes at a time when there is no shortage of superb crime fiction. Reginald Hill’s Death Comes for the Fat Man, Peter Abrahams’ Nerve Damage, and the long-awaited Up in Honey’s Room from Elmore Leonard are just a few of this season’s high points. Coben —a perennial bestseller and multiple award-winner — can easily stand alongside the most celebrated of today’s suspense writers.

Dutton, 404 pages. Available at booksellers and local libraries.

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