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The woods / Harlan Coben.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Dutton, c2007.Description: 404 p. ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 0525950125 :
  • 9780525950127
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 813/.54 22
Summary: 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 county prosecutor Paul Copeland, mourning the loss of his sister has only recently begun to subside. Balancing family life and a rapidly ascending career 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 family secrets are threatened. Is this 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--he must decide what is better left hidden in the dark and what truths can be brought to the light.--From publisher description.
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Item type Current library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Phillipsburg Free Public Library Adult Fiction Adult Fiction FIC COB Available 36748002246181
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

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 county prosecutor Paul Copeland, mourning the loss of his sister has only recently begun to subside. Balancing family life and a rapidly ascending career 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 family secrets are threatened. Is this 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--he must decide what is better left hidden in the dark and what truths can be brought to the light.--From publisher description.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Four teens entered the deep, dark woods, and two returned. Now county prosecutor Paul Copeland is facing a case that recalls his sister's disappearance that fateful night. With a national tour. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Superstar thriller writer Coben has an uncanny knack for getting readers to care deeply about his main characters--fast. Maybe it's that he often sets a metaphorical time bomb next to his main character's head, or puts him in metaphorical quicksand on page 1, or introduces a conflict so gripping you can't see how the hero can pull through. But Coben gets you tangled completely in his elaborate plots even before they really take off. In his latest, Coben uses the device of a very sympathetic character whose past threatens to engulf him at the outset. The hero, Paul Copeland, is an Essex County, New Jersey, prosecutor and a widower with a six-year-old daughter. The novel starts with two cops entering a school gym where Copeland is watching his daughter try to tumble. His own life tumbles when the cops lead him to the morgue, where he identifies a dead man whom he believed had been murdered, along with Copeland's own sister, almost 20 years before. The murder that destroyed his parents and continually threatens Copeland's psyche took place at a summer camp when a wealthy counselor slashed the throats of a series of victims. As Copeland is dealing with the reemergence of the long-ago trauma, he is also involved in prosecuting a group of rich fraternity kids for the rape of a stripper. Both cases place Copeland in increasing, heart-stopping danger. Another Coben gripper. --Connie Fletcher Copyright 2007 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Twenty years after his teenaged sister and three of her friends were murdered at their summer camp, a New Jersey prosecutor learns that one of the victims--and maybe more than one--may have walked away. Almost everyone Paul Copeland loves is gone. His mother took off years ago; his perfect wife died of cancer; his father went to his grave digging in the woods surrounding the old PLUS camp and telling Paul, "We still need to find her." In fact, nobody's ever found any more of Camille Copeland, than some bloody clothing. Three months after his father's death, a fresh corpse reopens the case with a jolt. Pressed by the NYPD to view the body found carrying his address, Paul's sure it's Gil Perez, even though he's supposed to have died in the woods two decades ago and his parents insist it's not him. The discovery is so shocking that Paul can barely keep his mind on his latest high-profile case: the prosecution of two frat boys for raping exotic dancer Chamique Johnson, who was invited to a party at their house and then assaulted. Maybe it's just as well if Paul is too distracted to bear down on the defendants, since their wealthy fathers are determined to cut him off at the knees by any means necessary, even if that means hunting for skeletons in his closet. EJ Jenrette goes after Paul with gusto. Considering his checkered family history, however, the ensuing revelations are a lot less resonant than they ought to be. And Coben's fondness for playing out twist after twist long after most tale-spinners would have packed it in makes his yarn seem urgent but not terribly consequential, because unlike most of the author's heroes (Promise Me, 2006, etc.), Paul never feels as if he's in real danger. All the surprises you'd expect from Coben, but a lot fewer thrills. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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