Having loved Liz Moore's Long Bright River, I was especially keen to read her latest, a superb, superior, and cracking multilayered historical read that had me enthralled from beginning to end, her artful and complex plotting is second to none, and her creation and development of varied, flawed, nuanced, and authentic feeling characters is remarkable. Weaving intriguing mysteries across different time periods with care, humanity, and skill, this spans from 1951 to 1975, it opens at the exclusive Camp Emerson, located amidst the vibrancy and beauty of the Adirondacks, where a young teen girl is discovered by a counsellor as missing from Camp Emerson, but this is no ordinary girl, she is Barbara Van Laar.

Barbara is the daughter of the rich Peter and Alice, owners of the camp, and the nearny ostentatious large estate and more, many years earlier before Barbara was born, her brother, Bear, disappeared too, never to be seen again, Alice is understandably shattered, her world is broken, she turns to alcohol, there is no comfort to be found in the distant Peter. It is no surprise there is widespread chaos and panic following this tragic dark occurence, what on earth is going on, how can this possibly happen again? There are rumours that abound as we are immersed in what lies beneath the surface, and the perspectives of a number of different characters, in the shifting eras, including members of the local community, the family, and Judya, who investigates amidst the social norms and attitudes of the time that leave a lot to be desired.

This is a utterly gripping read that I did not want to end, touching on a wide range of themes and issues, incorporating class inequalities, family, marriage, being a mother, love, childhood, identity, community, misogyny, belonging, abuse, connections, disconnections and more. An astutely observed mystery with its life changing impacts, this is a compulsive read and drama that I recommend highly to readers who appreciate and want to be immersed in an unmissable, brilliant, seemingly mystifying, suspenseful novel. Looking forward with great anticipation to Moore's next book!! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

This was engaging throughout, with a tense mystery and a feeling of desperation to know what happened not just in 1975 but also sixteen years prior. Two stories woven together excellently to create a riveting read.

It’s a breath of fresh air to read about adults and children in such a realistic way. They really came to life on the page. I felt myself caring for the majority of them, and kept turning the proverbial page in an all-encompassing need to find out what would happen next. The ending was divine - I had no idea what was coming but couldn’t have come up with a better ending myself. Loved it.

I will say that having multiple characters share the same name was a challenge, especially when we barely knew them. It took a few moments each time they appeared on the page to parse who they were, which broke my immersion. Also very occasionally, the dates confused me - but I LOVED the addition of a little timeline at the beginning of each chapter reminding us where we are. That is something all books should introduce!

Overall a very enjoyable read. I’m glad I picked this book up.

The God of the Woods is the mystery surrounding Barbara Van Laar, a girl who goes missing from a summer camp. Her disappearance is eerily similar to that of her brother Bear, some years earlier.
It’s a bit of a slow stater but it soon picks up. It’s told from different points of view and timelines but you don’t get lost within them all. It’s a gripping read that kept me interested from start to finish. One to look out for this year!

This book was a slow burner, which I nearly gave up on and I'm so glad I didn't!!

Barbara Van Laar, the daughter of a wealthy couple, goes missing whilst at camp. 14 years earlier her brother Bear also went missing and he was never found. Is history repeating itself or this an entirely different scenario?

A story of relationships, grief, privilege, parenthood and so much more

In 1960, beloved son and scion of a wealthy banking family, Peter 'Bear' Van Laar went missing during an annual weekend party at the family's summer estate. Fifteen years later, Barbara Van Laar (Bear's sister, born after his disappearance) goes missing while attending the summer camp which borders the family's estate.

What happened to Bear, and what is happening to Barbara, provides the meat of a plot which moves between 1975 and the 1950s, the sections set in the 1950s charting the marriage of Bear and Barbara's mother to their father, Peter Van Laar, and the 1975 chapters focusing in on a handful of characters, including an investigator, one of the first women to hold the title, one of Barbara's camp bunkmates, and a counsellor at the summer camp. Splitting perspectives between different times and characters is a common trope but one that requires a good writer to pull it off successfully, and Moore more than manages.

Moore weaves a gripping and complex tale of privilege, wealth, small-town poverty and secrets, a tale that is both tragic and not without hope.

I enjoyed this story. It was well written, especially with the number of characters and their timelines. It could have got confusing but I found it easy to keep up with them all..

Firstly, I enjoyed this thriller/mystery against my expectations: the first few pages did not bode well, but I persevered and by the end was glad I had stuck with it. I did not see the twist coming.
Telling two stories at once, it focuses on the van Laar family, privileged and arrogant, who have for several generations owned a country home up in the Adirondaks in New York State. In the early 1960s their little boy goes missing during a big party, and is never found, leaving his young mother turning to pills and alcohol to dull the pain of her unhappy and unfulfilled life. Fourteen years later, it seems that history has repeated itself, as the teenage daughter of the family fails to return one night to the summer camp, held on the van Laar estate each year. Police are called in but are at a loss, clutching at straws in order to apportion blame to someone - anyone - to appease the furious but strangely composed family.
The writing, once settled into its stride, is clear and direct. The characters are sufficiently convincing, if not wholly three dimensional, to make the reader turn the pages to find out what will happen next. This is a pleasing addition to the crime catalogue.

I found it slow to get into this book but once I had sorted out the characters, I was engrossed. Covering the disappearance of Barbara, the teenage daughter of a wealthy local family, we are led through the strata of upper-class American society and the people they consider as servants and socially inferior. The story is told from the view-point of many different characters, each with their own time line and the tension builds slowly throughout the book. The young detective, Judy, was an excellent character and really drew the whole scenarios together.

This is the first novel I've read by Liz Moore and wow, what a book! Although it's a hefty read (500+ pages), it's a real page-turner so I read it very quickly. The story is about a young girl who goes missing in 1975 from summer camp, but it transpires that her brother also disappeared from the same site 15 years before. The novel then expertly interweaves through the two different timelines, quickly developing two compelling stories and a host of intriguing characters. The book doesn't shy away from showing the flaws of human nature - the light and dark of our characters - and explores complex ideas including class structure, addiction, motherhood, misogony, and what it means to be a family. I think this will be a huge summer hit!

First thing to note...I don't do crime. Well, aside from the odd bout of shoplifting when I was younger. And lying about my kid's ages to get discounts. And stuff like that. What I really mean is, when it comes to my reading tastes, I don't do crime.

And this book, I guess, is crime. And mystery. And thriller. And it was a a cracker.

From the opening pages, I enjoyed the author's style of writing, and knew I had a page-turner on my hands.

Moore skilfully introduces a host of characters orbiting a summer camp where a young girl has gone missing, 16 years after the same thing happened to her brother.

I had absolutely idea how the story would pan out, which is exactly as it should be.

Great fun, compelling and with multiple mysteries to solve, The God of the Woods is a rip-snorter of a novel, perfect for a holiday read.

This is written in present tense. I have to admit that I don't seem to have come across this style much until recently. Personal choice, but I find it awkward, jolting and it doesn't flow. But, this story is compelling enough to persevere. I'd say for me it is unfortunate and does detract from what is a great, tense and thrilling read. A search begins for a missing girl after and empty bunk is found at a summer camp. She is the daughter of the owner, from an influential powerful family and also not the first child to go missing from her family. Layers and layers of secrets create powerful underlying double threaded drama that is both thrilling and addictive. Many local tensions are brought to the fore and questions of love, inheritance and finding yourself rise out of this event that the results of which are playing out and change the lives of everyone involved. I did enjoy it but also found it quite hard work.

What a page turner this book was! I was hooked from the get-go.

Taking place in the heart of Camp Emerson, the story revolves around the disappearance of Babara Van Laar - daughter of the wealthy Peter and Alice Van Laar. 15 years prior, "Bear" Van Laar also went missing under mysterious circumstances. Through the many twists and turns of the book we unearth clues as to where Barbara is and what had happened to "Bear".

I was incredibly impressed at the characterisation of the main perspectives in the book. I felt like each person had their own voice and character - thus making the switches in narration easy to follow.

Ideal for lovers of mystery and crime; I have no doubt that this will be a bestseller and can't wait to buy it for my shelf!

In 1961 Peter ‘Bear’ Van Laar 4, aged 8, disappears. Despite a search by locals and officials, Bear’s disappearance remains an enigma as a body was never found, though a local man took the rap for the abduction. 1975, and Bear’s sister, Barbara, also disappears. Again, no sign of the 12 year old girl anywhere. Carelessness, coincidence or something more sinister?

Two mysterious vanishings, lots of despicable rich folk, with lies and secrets everywhere, this is more than your average mystery thriller read, with the difference between the rich and those less so clearly marked.

Told across numerous timelines, some a better read than others, and from various POV, this is a slow, meandering tale, that certainly kept me engrossed. Normally I would not care for such a slow paced book, but in this case the style enhances the plot and goes deeply into the characters. Once the character Judyta Luptack appears it does move more quickly, but it is still a considered read.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins UK.

Loved the portrayal of the outdoor life in the Adirondack Mountains in a camp for children attached to the Van Laars large isolated mansion which they use in the summer. Being a keen hillwalker in the UK and used to enjoying walking in remote areas I felt that I really got an understanding of life there and enjoyed learning about nature in this area.
Basically this a story of a missing girl Barbara van Laar in 1975 and the search for her which starts to overlap with the disappearance of her brother over a decade before.
I liked the focus on the Judy the young Investigator who has recently transferred from being a state trooper and is trying to be accepted in a very male dominated work force and be taken seriously by the wealthy people that she is investigating.
A lot of the characters have a deprived background of poverty and emotional neglect which really contrasts with the extreme wealth and privilege of the Van Laars of which they are very protective.
The plot is told from different timelines and different perspectives and is very well constructed.
The very end of the book is a good way to finish the tale and left me wishfully thinking of life in simpler times.
This is the first Liz Moore book that I have read and definitely want to read more.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC

4* An intense suspenseful book, Liz Moore has created another classic.

Two children go missing 14 years apart. Both are from the same family, the Van Laar banking dynasty and both disappearances happen at their vast summer estate, replete with mansion, lake and a summer camp for the children of the well-heeled. The disappearance of Bear, the first born child and heir to the family empire sent shockwaves through the community and, under the surface, tore the family apart. Barbara wasn't yet born when Bear vanished but her absence from the summer camp brings back memories for many and sets in train a chain of events that can never be undone.

Liz Moore tells the story across several perspectives. The early 60s and Bear going missing, alongside Barbara's disappearance as experienced by those in the summer camp and the police leading the investigation.

This is a sharp and twisty book with fine detail about attitudes across a class divide, set between two decades. The plot begins as a slow burn but by the half way point is cantering along at speed, I literally could not put it down. The characters are well defined and the book is rich and vibrant because of it's complexity and well imagined cast, which in a lesser author's hands could have become convoluted.

I squealed with delight when I got this book because, several years on, I can vividly remember how much I enjoyed Long Bright River. The God of the Woods, once it really got going, did not disappoint.

Huge thanks to Harper Collins and Netgalley for an ARC.

This is another outstanding read from Liz Moore although completely different from Long Bright River. It switches through multiple POVs and timelines but is easy to follow. It is an excellent study of complex female characters, mainly Tracy, Louise, Alice and Judy (Judyta) but also Barbara and T.J. It is long but I did not want it to end. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for an advanced copy in exchange for my review.

In the 1960's, the young son of a rich family goes missing int he grounds of their summer home. After days of searching, nothing is found, but everyone has an idea of what happened to him. But in the mid 1970's his younger Sister vanishes from a summer camp that is set on the same grounds where her Brother had vanished before she was born. Is it fate, a conspiracy or something more sinister? This twisty brilliant book is set over various era's, looking at what happened to Bear and Barbara van Laars, and all those who are connected to their lives in some way or another.

A must read for those who love a good mystery!

Okay so i loved this book, I did find the first half a little slow but then it picked up and I just felt like the story flowed off the pages which isn’t easy to find. This is my first time reading off this without but I highly recommend

An evocative and suspenseful mystery that vacillitates across multiple decades, The God in the Woods is a smart, layered page-turner that focuses on gender, autonomy, and freedom following the eerie disappearance of a young girl at an exclusive summer camp.

While it occasionally slides into sluggishness, The God in the Woods is empathetic and intelligent, with likeable leads and satisfying plotting and writing, making it a go-to summer read for 2024.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore is a mystery thriller set between the early 1960’s and mid 70’s about the disappearance of a brother and sister 13 years apart.
Set in a young people’s summer camp in the Adirondacks, a range of mountains in New York State, the action happens over two different timescales with different threads, involving the same characters with themes of broken families, domestic violence and addiction. I liked the character of the young Investigator Judy who had to deal with misogynistic colleagues which was common in that era. It’s a fairly quick read with lots of red herrings that all comes together in a satisfying way at the end.

Many thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins UK for an ARC