Funk Rating: 7 out of 10
As page turners go, this is a great summer read. Some wonderful suspense, great unraveling of mystery, and plenty of cutbacks and surprises. I've come to enjoy Coben, and The Woods is not a lousy book.
But, at the same time, it's awful fluffy. The characters are just superficial enough and there's just enough unbelievability in the plot turns to make me groan a little at the end. "Too tricked up" would be the quick comment over a drink when reviewing my favorite recent reads. It's clever enough, and fun in many spots, but it's just a little "too... too..." if you know what I mean...
I'd look for other fare until you find this in paperback and need an entertaining escape. I will, however, given Coben mucho credit for doing a masterful job of showing how a good prosecutor really can be great at their job (180 degrees from his not too subtle references to Mike Nifong and his disaster).
I just read this novel and was looking for other reader's responses on the web. I think Coben's a good writer, but he's a little too obsessed with putting five or six major plot twists in every one of his books, which hurts the credibility of his plots. Still, I really liked THE WOODS and zipped through it.
Posted by: Richard Myers | June 17, 2007 at 06:29 AM