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The Woods | 
| Author: Harlan Coben
Publisher: Orion
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy New: £4.47
You Save: £2.52 (36%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 3180
Media: Paperback
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0752881906
EAN: 9780752881904
ASIN: 0752881906
Publication Date: January 24, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 The past is never finished: Harlan Coben's The Woods September 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
'I see my father with that shovel.'
Harlan Coben opens his bestselling crime novel The Woods with this disturbing recollection. Significantly it is 'that shovel' and as we accompany the protagonist 'Cope' through his difficult confrontations with his past, which is fraught with betrayals, Soviet barbarism, mistaken identity and death, we gradually realise how ironically appropriate the opening line might be. What is the father digging for? Who is his trying to resurrect bone by bone? Actions are metaphors for life itself.
For Paul Copeland (a county Prosecutor) finds 'seeing' profoundly challenging. There are so many secrets past and present, that his whole identity about who is is comes under savage scrutiny. Deceit is ubiquitous. Blindness is survival, yet self-destruction. The price of being Lazarus is high indeed!
Coben is superb at layering his novels in terms of plot and he renders the lives of his characters surreal. Like an archaelogical dig(first line again) The Woods visits and then revisits the past proving that any apparent fact, any assumption can be placed in jeopardy through a moment's revelation.
There is something very solid and enduring about Coben's narrative here and character and place are given enough 'reality' to persuade and support the changing possibilities of the intricate plot. The protaganonist has a dependable foil called 'Muse(!!) and the writing style is polished and assured.
Enough to say that 'everything connects' and the final pages of the novel still holds out an element of surprise with a somewhat ambiguous ending.
A very entertaining and quite creepy read I have to admit. The Woods raises the spectre of summer camp slasher horror very subtly and it lingers!!
 Above average thriller August 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Woods
Paul Copeland is a county prosecutor who was at a summer camp twenty years ago where four children were murdered and this has come back to haunt him and threaten his career.
Far too much of the first half of the novel is taken up with a court case of date rape that seems to belong to another novel, the purpose solely to enable the wealthy father of the accused youngsters to pry into Copeland's past. Exactly the same purpose could have been achieved without the long irrelevant court scenes slowing down the pace of the novel to a point where I nearly gave up.
However after this initial aberration the plot gains pace and with good character development I thoroughly enjoyed my first (and probably not the best) Coben novel.
A good but not outstanding read.
 trash fiction - rubbish! August 4, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I was led to Coben by suggestions and links from other books on amazon. Having read RJ Ellory's superb work I came to Harlen Coben with great anticipation. I have been thoroughly disappointed. Cliche ridden rubbish. Boogie monsters in the woods, etc. Come on. If you want something to read on the beach and you're 16 then Coben is for you, otherwise you should try elsewhere, I am frankly amazed why this author is so popular.
I have to admit i didn't finish this book - i lost it whilst on holiday. I really did want to finish it and then refer to the text whilst i wrote this review (my second ever). However i couldn't bring myself to waste any more money. I groaned continually at the shoddy plot and narrative. I feel it's written in the style of another literary travesty - The Da Vinci Code - written like a tv mini series CSI or some other flimsy tat. Anybody looking for great prose and drama, suspense and originality could do a lot worse than RJ Ellory.
The intellectually challeneged should stick with Coben, horses for courses i guess.
Brilliant August 3, 2008
Well this is by far the best book I have read for years, so much so that I am writing this review. The book tells an amazing story that is well written and in such a way that it is incredibly difficult to put down, I will definetly buy more of this author and a very recommended book!!!
Not His Best, but an OK Read July 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've now read 6 Harlan Coben novels and he is currently one of my favourite authors. I only gave this book - The Woods - 3 stars, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it at all. Compared to his other books I've read I found this one only worthy of 3 stars instead of the 4 or 5 ratings I've given to his previous novels.
Maybe I'm getting more used to Coben's style and formula, I'm not really sure, but I found The Woods to be a lot more predictable than his previous works. The twists and turns were not as intricate or ambiguous. I tended to see what was coming before it happened. And occassionally there seemed to be a sudden, unexpected twist that didn't really seem to make a lot of sense in the overall context of the plot. Some almost contrived twists in an attempt to make it less predictable. The pace was definitely slower in this novel too.
These are just my own personal views. Everything aside, I still enjoyed reading the book and I would recommend reading The Woods if you are a fan of the genre. I just feel that Coben fans (like myself) might be a touch disappointed with this one compared to earlier works.
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