Listened to: "The Woods" by Harlan Coben

Listened to: The Woods by Harlan Coben, downloaded from Overdrive.com.

I'm split on this one. I really disliked the audiobook narrator and the main character was annoying, but the plotting was really good.

Paul Copeland is a District Attorney in New Jersey. His sister and another teen, Gil, went missing twenty years ago in the woods of a summer camp while two other teens were slashed up. Her body was never found but a couple New York City police detectives have Copeland come see a murder victim's body who Copeland identifies as Gil. Copeland wonders if his sister is alive.

Copeland is dealing with an important rape trial while digging into the past that involves his dead father, runaway mother, summer camp girlfriend, Gil's family, his in-laws and other issues. Copeland's wife died five years ago and he is still in mourning over her. Obviously and 0bnoxiously so. He's always whining about his poor dead, beautiful wife who was his strong right hand, blah blah blah blah.

I disliked quite a few of the characters but they were all well drawn. Coben keeps things moving along at a good pace and uses the second story line (rape trial) to illuminate the first (dead sister). Suspicions on the responsibility of the murders shifts back and forth and Coben planted a few seeds that had me guessing about what might have happened.


Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if the narrator was not such a pinhead. I could have easily glossed over the annoying parts if I were reading them.