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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #160143 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

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

Customer Reviews

The Woods
This is one of Coben's more facinating books because he interlaces two stories and a subplot. It drags in one place with the former girlfriend, but picks up later. It is a fast read and creative. We are cheering for him throughout the book as he deals with the past and the present.

Stand-alone thriller delivers despite flaws
I read this book in one night, which testifies to its quickly paced plot. However, there are a few implausibilites and shallow characters (Lonnie, for example) here. Coben's thriller puts a 20-year-old mystery concerning the disappearance (and presumed murder) of Paul Copeland's sister Camille back into his focus even as he valiantly tries to defend a stripper accusing frat boys of rape (shades of Duke University).

Lucy Silverstein Gold is an old friend/lover of Paul's and she is also haunted by a summer they spent together at a camp that her parents ran. Two campers were brutally murdered by a serial killer, Wayne Steubens, who is up for parole. Two other campers disappeared and are presumed dead but without physical evidence, Paul's ready to believe that his sister's still alive.

This book reminded me more of the TV show "Cold Case" than anything else and as I read, and the plot holes became more discernable, I began fantasizing about a Cold Case/Law & Order crossover. This is the first Coben book I've picked up and assuredly it won't be the last.

Couldnt put it down
I loved this book! My girlfriends mother suggested she read it, then I happen to see it on our coffee table. I dont consider myself an "active" or "avid" reader... but after I read the first chapter I knew I wouldnt be able to sleep if I stopped. I read from 9:30pm to 4:30am!!!