The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben
The twist is the thing. Harlan Coben has become a cottage industry unto himself, not just with a long string of bestsellers and over 70 million books in print, but, more recently, as a rising force in international television. (He currently has no less than 14 projects in development with Netflix.) All that success, all those fans, can be attributed to one word: Twist.
There may be no other thriller writer alive today who has mastered that fundamental trick of the genre. When you start a new Coben novel, or just pick one up and read the jacket copy, you know that nothing will unfold as it seems. You can be assured that surprises will keep appearing until the final page.
His latest novel, his 32nd — The Boy From The Woods (Grand Central Publishing) — delivers his signature twists once more. It centers around a character named Wilde — the titular “boy from the woods” — who was discovered as a kid living in the Ramapough Mountains in New Jersey as a sort of child survivalist, without any memory of his past. Young Wilde not only learned how to fend for himself alone in the wilderness, he also mastered the art of innocent B&E — breaking into nearby mountain homes for necessities of food and the comforts of television.
The novel’s other major character — to this reader, the more vibrant and well-drawn of the two — is a celebrity criminal defense lawyer named Hester Crimstein. Hester’s deceased son was once Wilde’s best friend, when the “boy from the woods” entered society, albeit reluctantly, and grew up in relative normalcy with a kind foster family and solid schooling.
The plot is powered by the connection between the aging — though still romantically inclined — star lawyer and Wilde, the antisocial mountain man who’s stepped in as a kind of surrogate father to Hester’s fatherless grandson, Matthew.
When Matthew approaches them with worries about the disappearance of a classmate — a tormented social outcast named Naomi Pine — Hester and Wilde embrace the search together.
However, this being Harlan Coben, this is no standard missing-girl narrative. Soon, it becomes a plot swirling with obscene wealth and terrifying political ambitions — and the anything-goes will of the powerful to keep their secrets.
Parallels to real-life inspirations are clear. Rusty Eggers, the reality TV star turned conscienceless presidential frontrunner, has more than a few Trumpian characteristics. Dash Maynard, the documentarian turned mogul producer who facilitated Eggers’ rise — here’s looking at you, Apprentice creator Mark Burnett.
As for powerhouse lawyer / take-no-shit cable host, Hester Crimstein, she’s an amalgam of plenty of familiar talking heads. Again, it’s the character of Hester who wins the day. Wilde, with his mysterious backstory, is a fine hero worthy of the title, but I was left wanting to read more from Hester’s POV.
Here’s hoping Coben returns to her soon, in a future outing.
