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The Woods
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) (2007-05-16)
ISBN: 0752876368
EAN: 9780752876368
Paperback: 320 pages
Edition: Export Ed
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Customer Reviews
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Superb.... could not put it down.
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-11-05
Was gripped from the first page... wonderful book. Fantastic twists and turns,even up to the last page, though I do question why Paul had an issue with Lucy at all on the last page, as she did no more (in fact far less !!!!) that his sister and SHE was embraced back into the fold, even living with him. So I did feel like saying to him on the last page... get over yourself, and just marry her !!!
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The past is never finished: Harlan Coben's The Woods
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-09-01
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw 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!!
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Hard to put down
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-08-25
I'm not really into crime fiction (and the recommendation from Dan Brown on the cover didn't help) but I decided to give it a go. This is the first Harlan Coben book I've read and I really enjoyed it. The plot twists and turns and the characters are well written.
The plot was fast paced and, as I've said, enough twists to keep me reading. I'll certainly be looking out for more of Cobens books.
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Above average thriller
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-08-12
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw 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.
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trash fiction - rubbish!
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-08-04
1 out of 6 customers found this reveiw 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.
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Retail Price: £11.99
Amazon.com's Price:£0.01
That's 100% Off!
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