Search - The Woods

	The Woods Author: Harlan Coben
	Book Information Publisher: Dutton Adult Book Type: Hardcover Rating: ISBN-13: 9780525950127 - ISBN-10: 0525950125 Publication Date: 4/17/2007 Pages: 465

There's a reason Harlan Coben consistently tops the bestseller lists: he's really, really good. Coben can weave a mystery you absolutely must get to the bottom of - even if it means a burnt dinner, missed train, or lost sleep after a long night riveted to the page! Now he brings us an irresistibly suspenseful story - with a touch of "Hansel and Gretel" but terrifyingly real - about children who wander into the woods, never to return ... or do they?

Twenty years ago, prosecutor Paul "Cope" Copeland lost his only sister when four teenagers disappeared from the woods near summer camp. He was on guard duty that night - and he left his post for a tryst with his first love, Lucy. Two were found viciously murdered. Two were never seen again. A serial killer was blamed for all four murders, but Cope, whose sister's body was never found, is still haunted by the case.

For the county prosecutor of Essex, New Jersey, mourning the loss of his sister has only recently begun to subside. Cope, is now dealing with raising his six-year-old daughter as a single father after his wife has died from cancer. Balancing family life and a rapidly ascending career as a prosecutor distracts him from his past traumas, but only for so long.

Now his life has been thrown into turmoil when a dead body turns up at the morgue. It is the grown-up corpse of one of the missing boys from two decades ago. The question is: could his sister still be alive? And can he find absolution?

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.

Once again Harlan Coben delivers his unique mix of powerful characters, lightning pace and twists in a stunning new novel about family, lost secrets and mistakes that can haunt a life forever.

• Mystery & Thrillers >> Thrillers