Book Review: The Boy from the Woods

Synopsis:

A man whose past is shrouded in mystery must find a missing teenage girl before her disappearance brings about disastrous consequences for her community . . . and the world.

The man is known as Wilde. He’s a mystery to everyone, including himself. In 1986, he was just a boy found living feral in the woods. He had no memory of his past or how he came to be alone in the woods. An exhaustive hunt for his family yielded no information, and he was placed in the foster system. He found a loving family and was adopted.

Now, more than thirty years later, Wilde still doesn’t know where he came from, and he’s been back living in the woods on the outskirts of town for some time. He’s content as an outcast, comfortable only outdoors — preferably alone because he is incapable of forming deep connections to other people.

When a local girl goes missing, famous TV lawyer Hester Crimstein – with whom Wilde shares a history and tragic connection – asks him to employ his unique skills to help find her.

Meanwhile, a group of ex-military security experts arrive in town. When another teen disappears, the case’s impact expands far beyond the borders of the peaceful suburb. Wilde must return to the community where he has never fit in, and 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.

Review:

Best-selling author Harlan Coben never fails to deliver an action-paced story and The Boy from the Woods is no exception. Coben says that he is constantly thinking about potential plots for his books, perpetually asking, “What if . . .?” That simple question provides the basis for each of his novels. He relates that he has thousands of seeds of stories, but “very few take root.” Fortunately for his readers, a sufficient number do. And once an idea is cemented in his mind, he next decides who is going to tell the story. Before he begins writing, Coben always knows both the beginning and the end of the story, but not necessarily how he will arrive at the end.

In the case of The Boy from the Woods, Coben recalls that he was hiking through the woods one day (and getting bored), when he noticed a little boy about six years old wandering alone. He asked himself, “What if a little boy came out of the woods and had no idea where he had lived before? He has no idea who his parents were, but insists he has been living alone in the woods and there is evidence that he’s broken into houses to get food and was a little bit feral. And what if, thirty years later, he still doesn’t know where he came from? And then another kid goes missing and he (Wilde) has to go into the woods to find another child. What if . . .?”

High-powered celebrity lawyer Hester Crimstein is a widow who knows the pain of losing a beloved child. Her son, David, has been dead for ten years. After Wilde was discovered in the woods behind the Crimstein home, David and Wilde were close friends, and David’s death hit Wilde hard, too. Now David’s widow, Laila, continues residing in the family home where Hester and her late husband, Ira, raised David and his two brothers. Also still mourning David, she is raising their teenage son, Matthew. Day after day, Matthew watches his classmate, Naomi, being taunted and bullied at school. But he doesn’t stand up to her tormenters. He knows “the awful truth: You grow immune to cruelty. It becomes the norm. You accept it. You move on.” when she disappears, he feels guilty and “needs to know why.” Even Ava O’Brien, the only teacher who seemed to have a rapport with Naomi, has no idea where she may have gone. Matthew enlists his grandmother to help him find out what happened to her. And Hester retains Wilde to assist because of his military background, as well as the time he spent running an investigative/security firm with his adopted sister.

Among the students who abused Naomi was Crash Maynard, the pampered son of Dash and Delia Maynard. Dash is a successful reality television show producer who allegedly films everything his unwitting cast members do and say, including private dressing room conversations. He is the long-time friend of Rusty Eggers, a controversial U.S. senator running for president. Rumors swirl that Dash could destroy the careers of many celebrities and politicians — including Eggers — by releasing video footage of them. And a group of citizens dedicated to ensuring that Eggers is never elected are calling Dash to do just that so the public can see what Eggers is really like in unguarded moments. A nod to the 2016 presidential election? His major detractor, Saul Strauss, an attorney, activist, and liberal arts professor, is convinced that Eggers is a “stone-cold sociopath.” He tells Wilde that if Eggers wins the election, “millions of people may die. That is how it is with charismatic leaders like him.”

How far would you go to save millions of lives?

At the center of the story is Wilde, a man who learned as a child to navigate the world alone and has never been able to approach life any other way. He cares deeply about others, but cannot sustain relationships for any period of time. He lives in a customized spheroid-shaped pod called an Ecocapsule deep in the woods, and relocates it frequently. Keenly intelligent, fit, and highly trained at West Point before serving in special forces units overseas, Wilde either can’t or won’t assimilate into “normal” society. “Whatever Wilde saw over there, whatever he did or experienced or lost, war had pushed him over the edge or maybe, in his case, it had awoken the ghosts of his past. Who’s to say?” In any event, Wilde feels a fondness for and sense of obligation to Hester because of his relationship with David and the fact that he was with David on the night he died. He is also fond of Matthew and has remained a presence in the fatherless boy’s life.

Coben slyly and effortlessly tackles social issues, including schoolhouse bullying, the existential danger to the country of electing a leader with a nefarious past and malignant disposition, and the lengths to which some are willing to go in the name of a cause. An undisputed master storyteller, he deftly weaves several story lines that initially appear disparate into a seamless tale. The pace of the book never slows as he gradually pulls the threads together into a cohesive narrative involving long-held secrets, political intrigue, and tenuous alliances. Devotion to the future of the country leads to the implementation of deadly, vigilante-like measures. Once Wilde pieces together enough information to understand the motivation and potential consequences, he races to stop further harm from being inflicted.

Hester appeared in prior novels, including Run Away in 2019, but Coben gives readers insight into her psyche in The Boy from the Woods. Her crisp, sometimes caustic repartee with Oren Carmichael, the divorced police chief, is both hilarious and endearing, illustrating her vulnerability and humanity. Wilde is an intriguing riddle — self-sufficient and guarded, compassionate and surprisingly sensitive to others’ feelings, yet morally ambiguous. Why does he hesitate to avail himself of available technology to ascertain the identity of his parents and learn how he ended up alone in the woods all those years ago? What causes him to maintain his solitary existence when he seems to want to establish and maintain close relationships? Coben’s nuanced, empathetic, and surprisingly likable characters elevate the mystery and, in combination with the unexpected conclusion, leave many questions unanswered. Coben fans know that his characters, like Hester, have a way of resurfacing in subsequent novels. So there’s hope that Coben will ask “What if . . .?” and be inspired to continue Wilde’s story in a future release.

The Boy from the Woods proves yet again that Coben is one of a only a few American authors who consistently delivers entertaining, inventive thrillers featuring intriguing, layered characters.