The Boy from the Woods

by Harlan Coben

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538748206
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	10/20/2020
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	15,353
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.12(d)

About the Author

Harlan Coben is a #1 NewYorkTimes bestselling author and one of the world's leading storytellers. His suspense novels are published in forty-five languages and have been number one bestsellers in more than a dozen countries, with seventy-five million books in print worldwide. His Myron Bolitar series has earned the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, and many of his books have been developed into Netflix series, including his adaptation of TheStranger, headlined by Richard Armitage, and The Woods. He lives in New Jersey.

Hometown:

Ridgewood, New Jersey

Date of Birth:

January 4, 1962

Place of Birth:

Newark, New Jersey

Education:

B.A. in political science, Amherst College, 1984

Website:

http://www.harlancoben.com

Editorial Reviews

"Gripping . . . a must-read."—9to5Toys

From the Publisher

01/13/2020

This subpar thriller from Edgar winner Coben (the Myron Bolitar series) pairs an improbable lead with an improbable plot. In 1986, a boy, who looks to be between six and eight years old, is found living on his own in the woods near Westville, N.J. Flash forward 34 years. The boy is now known simply as Wilde, “a beautiful man with his dark sun-kissed complexion, his build of coiled muscles, his forearms looking like high tension wires.” Wilde is also a genius and a brilliant PI. His detective skills are called upon after his late best friend’s mother, celebrity lawyer Hester Crimstein, learns from her teenage grandson that a bullied classmate of her grandson, Naomi Pine, has disappeared from her Westville home. Naomi’s father falsely claims that his daughter went to visit her mother, raising suspicions of foul play. Naomi’s story is somehow connected with the presidential aspirations of Sen. Rusty Eggers, a nihilistic tyrant viewed by some on the left as even more of a threat to America than Donald Trump, a hard-to-swallow plotline that Coben does nothing to make feel plausible. This gifted author is capable of better. 7-city author tour. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 03/01/2020

In 1986, a young boy was found living in the woods in Ramapo Mountain State Park in New Jersey. He was about six to eight years old, spoke English, but had no idea of his name. Thirty years later, Wilde, who was adpoted and raised by criminal defense attorney Hester Crimstein, still prefers being outside. When a teen girl, Naomi, who had been cruelly bullied goes missing, Hester broadcasts about the case on her television show and asks Wilde to help with the search. The investigation takes Wilde and Hester deep into the ugly underbelly of wealthy elites who never face repercussions for their actions. Wilde soon realizes that the secrets he's uncovering could destroy more than one girl's life. This riveting, action-packed novel by the author of the best-selling Run Away is intense from the first page, with dramatic plot twists eerily reminiscent of current political and social scandals. VERDICT Fans of complex heroes caught up in world-changing events will relish this latest from a master storyteller. [See Prepub Alert, 8/25/19.]—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Library Journal

2019-12-23
Coben's latest darkest-suburbs thriller sets a decidedly offbeat detective on the trail of a crime with overtones unmistakably redolent of once and future presidential elections.

Wilde is called Wilde because nobody's known his real name from the moment a pair of hikers found him foraging for himself in Ramapo Mountain State Forest 24 years ago. Now over 40, he's had experience as both a lost boy and a private investigator. That makes him an obvious person to help when his godson, Sweet Water High School student Matthew Crimstein, expresses concern to his grandmother, attorney Hester Crimstein, that his bullied classmate Naomi Pine has gone missing. Matthew doesn't really want anyone to help. He doesn't even want anyone to notice his agitation. But Hester, taking the time from her criminal defense of financial consultant Simon Greene (Run Away, 2019) to worm the details out of him, asks Wilde to lend a hand, and sure enough, Wilde, unearthing an unsavory backstory that links Naomi to bullying classmate Crash Maynard, whose TV producer father, Dash Maynard, is close friends with reality TV star-turned-presidential hopeful Rusty Eggers, finds Naomi hale and hearty. Everything's hunky-dory for one week, and then she disappears again. And this time, so does Crash after a brief visit to Matthew in which he tearfully confesses his guilt about the bad stuff he did to Naomi. This second disappearance veers into more obviously criminal territory with the arrival of a ransom note that demands, not money, but the allegedly incriminating videotapes of Rusty Eggers that Dash and Delia Maynard have had squirreled away for 30 years. The tapes link Rusty to a forgotten and forgettable homicide and add a paranoid new ripped-from-the-headlines dimension to the author's formidable range. Readers who can tune out all the subplots will find the kidnappers easy to spot, but Coben finds room for three climactic surprises, one of them a honey.

Now that Coben's added politics to his heady brew, expect sex and religion to join the mix.

Kirkus Reviews