A man with a mysterious past must find a missing teenage girl in this shocking thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Run Away.
Thirty
years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no
memory of his past. Now an adult, he still doesn't know where he comes
from, and another child has gone missing.
No one seems to take
Naomi Pine's disappearance seriously, not even her father -- with one
exception. Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, knows
through her grandson that Naomi was relentlessly bullied at school.
Hester asks Wilde -- with whom she shares a tragic connection -- to use
his unique skills to help find Naomi.
Wilde can't ignore an
outcast in trouble, but in order to find Naomi he must venture back into
the community where he has never fit in, a place where the powerful are
protected even when they harbor secrets that could destroy the lives of
millions . . . secrets that Wilde must uncover before it's too late.
It
pains me to write this as I’m a huge Harlan Coben fan but this book was
a disappointment. I’ve read all the author’s books and my favorites of
his have always been his stand alone novels. I love the mysteries in
these novels about missing people and all the twists and turns I know
are coming. As a voracious reader he’s always been one of the few
writers who manages to stump me no matter how hard I try to stay ahead
of him. That being said this novel is not what I love about those
novels. At its heart this is not really a missing person novel or about
the characters listed in the description. This novel is largely
overshadowed by a political story that involves money and power and all
that goes along with politics. I will say Coben does it better than
other authors I’ve read lately have done. I’ve been annoyed to find some
of my favorite mystery writers lately ruining their books with their
political obsessions. I don’t think many mystery fans want to debate the
merits of the president in what should be a mystery novel. To his
credit the political candidate in this book that I took to be a stand in
for the president turns out to be more than a caricature. Coben
actually makes an excellent point about the obsessions that come with
hating a political figure and what happens when the ends justify the
means. I do think he wrote himself into a problem trying to make a point
by allowing certain things to happen but again this is not a one sided
rant as I’ve seen in other books. But unfortunately I could not find
myself caring about this large part of the novel so it fell flat for me.
I
really liked a lot of the characters in this book but it just didn’t
have a good enough story. The novel is from the POV of Wilde, the man
with the mysterious path found in the woods as a boy or Hester, the
famous criminal defense attorney, and Coben uses brilliantly to showcase
her role in his last book Run Away. If you’re wondering about the case
mentioned at the beginning and end of the book that’s where to find out
what happened with the punch that went viral. Both characters are
sympathetic and interesting but unfortunately they just weren’t enough
to make this novel interesting when so much of the story is overshadowed
by the political element. Again this novel is not really about Naomi or
Wilde’s attempt to find her. For that reason it was a disappointment
and not at all what I was expecting or would have wanted to read.
So
much in one book! Do you like mysteries? You have multiple mysteries.
Do you like books about politics? You have a book about politics -
fictional, but not really given todays political environment. Do you
like legal plots? You have several - and before you get too complacent -
they aren't what you think. Do you like stories with twists and turns?
You have it - along with surprise endings on top of surprise endings.
In
other words this is the kind of book I love. The characters have actual
personalities - believable ones. No one is perfect, but they are
believable. Some of the people do good things, for good reasons - with
bad results, sort of. Does that give you an idea of what this book is
like? It's about well meaning, fallible people. There are bad people
too - except they are maybe more weak than bad. One thing for certain -
the author understands human nature and used it to create a compelling,
interesting and educational story.
There are multiple threads in this story, but no loose ends when the book is finished. Definitely a good read.
Harlan
Coben is one of my favorite authors. This book has all the ingredients
found in his novels: interesting characters, twisting plot, surprises
throughout. It just didn't hit the mark. The first half of the book was
slow and had trouble moving with any pace. Characters like Wilde, the
boy from the woods, though interesting, has many unexplained issues and
inconsistencies in his complex personality. He's kind of a mix between
Jack Reacher and Tarzan. Hester Crimstein, an attorney and TV
personality, has a Judge Judy like persona and supplies the witty
repartee so often found in Coben's books. The rest of the cast is an
amalgam of people from almost all walks of life and every social strata.
How their lives intersect was too contrived for my taste. All in all,
good but not Coben's best.
I’ve read many of Mr. Coben’s books and have never been this disappointed..
The
storyline is actually very interesting. The main characters are a man
who as a boy, was left in the woods by someone, a 70 yr old criminal
attorney who knows just the right questions to ask, a politician who
will do anything to get elected, two teenagers and an ultra rich couple.
A
teenager goes missing. The there’s another ... the storyline proceeds
with drama, suspense, the usual twists and turns and would have ended
on a great note if one didn’t have the read the chapter “three weeks
later.” I know you’ll read it even if I say not to. But it wrecks the
whole book. If it weren’t on my iPad, I would have torn out that
chapter or just simply stomped on the book, tore the whole thing up and
set it on fire.
The ending is stupid, nonsensical and ridiculous.
It doesn’t even belong in the story. Mr. Harlan Coben, you are much
better than this!
Oh
what a tangled web is woven. Mr. Coben is a master of mystery. Wilde is
the mysterious boy all grown up. He’s a hunter working with his dear
friend Hester to solve more than one mystery. In fact there are three
mysteries all woven together in a tightly bundled nest. Take the journey
as the threads of the plot unwind in a compelling way. You’ll be glad
you did.
![The Boy from the Woods by [Harlan Coben]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Hja34aUnL.jpg)
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