The Woods
by Harlan Coben
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Book Summary Information
Author: Harlan CobenEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-01
ISBN: 0451221958
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Signet
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780451221957
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Woods
Book Review: The Woods: F for effort.
Summary: 1 Stars
WARNING, SPOILERS. I've read two novels by coben and there are several things that bother me, among them the 1st person/3rd person narratives, the unnecessary one-line paragraphs, the fact that sometimes the narrator "speaks" directly to the reader. The previous novel by him that I read was Tell No One and, if you've read that, you've read a good chunk of THE WOODS: a woman presumed dead reappears after many years while those who loved her are haunted by her "death." I wonder if coben will ever write a different novel, you know, with a plot that strays from the lost-woman-in-the-woods-presumed-dead-grieving-male-relative bs he gives us here. But THE WOODS is far worse than Tell No One. For starters, coben re-writes a real "rape" case to suit his preaching mood, that is he gives us the infamous lacrosse team "rape" case that a Black stripper brought against some white, well-off kids in North Carolina, but coben makes it so that his protagonist, the obnoxious, unscrupulous, hypocrite Copeland, wins the convictions that the real, obnoxious and unscrupulous Durham, NC DA Nifong tried so hard to get and that, deservedly, cost him his career. coben doesn't seem to like the real result of the lacrosse team case (the stripper was lying, she was in it for the money only, the DA knew it and doctored evidence to prosecute the guys, etc), so his hero in the novel finally gets "justice" done to the prostitute while his own family murders its way left and right, its connections to thieves, torturers and murderers obvious and plain, but our hero DA Copeland is so pristine, so focused on Justice, that if he perjures himself for his brother-in-law or doesn't come out and tells the truth about his own father being a KGB agent and murderer, well, who are we to judge? coben reminds readers that the DA is the top cop of his county and he seems to like his character, who bullies all those around him with his badge and the power of his office, yet is outraged that people would want to find dirt on him (the nerve!) About the only positive comment I have about this bag of puke is coben's perhaps unintentional portrayal of his DA: an arrogant bully who will destroy people's lives just because he has the power to do it, masking his selective search for "justice" as "pure" and hiding his pet hatreds behind a badge. coben could have done much with such a character (think of what MacDonald Fraser did with Flashman). Sadly, coben chose to give us a rehash of a previous novel with a protagonist so full of his own self-righteousness that the whole thing stinks. And, technical note, in real-life trials there are no "surprise" witnesses or evidence: you show the other side "everything" you plan to present before the jury and give it time to digest it. No last-minute CDs if the defense hasn't seen it first. Nothing in this novel works: the puppy love that blossoms after 20 years and tragedies galore; the lost relative that comes back from the dead; the hero and his holier-than-thou attitude; the bad courtroom "drama" that is just legal ignorance piled up on top of bad writing. But, then again, maybe things are different in Jersey.
Summary of The Woods
Twenty years ago at summer camp, Paul Copeland's sister died in the woods, the alleged victim of a serial killer. Her body was never found. Now, Paul is the prosecutor for Essex County, New Jersey, immersed in one of the biggest cases of his career-a case that will change everything he believes about the past...and the truth.
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