The Woods: a novel by Harlan Coben

Excellent**** July 7,2007

Another excellent stand-alone novel by Coben. This is first-rate crime/mystery writing. The novel goes back and forth between the present, a court trial where prosecutor Paul Copeland is trying two rich white rapists of a black stripper, to a summer twenty years before when Paul was a counsellor at a summer camp and four campers were murdered, including his sister. The characters of Paul and his former girfriend Lucy Gold are well developed and we follow them as they are dragged back to the night and the present-day site of the murders. The plot twists are numerous, the final twist a bit far-fetched. Coben could have ditched the Russian/KGB subplot and had an even stronger novel. I look forward eagerly to his next one.