IN THE WOODS

There’s a lot of coming and going in the woods. There are the hunters, the campers, the walkers and the workers. The locals do not welcome any of them and want the woods back for themselves; a peaceful haven, unspoilt, tranquil and full of wildlife and natural beauty. They see it as their birthright, somewhere to be protected at all costs. But despite their protests a massive pipeline has already been installed cutting an ugly swathe through the woods. Fracking has spoilt their water and caused environmental damage and the new improved campsite in the state forest has opened the way for townies to enjoy the woods for their own leisure pursuits. The locals have formed a group to try to fight for their woods but still more and more visitors flood in.

Harper and Hank Jennings are taking a romantic weekend break together, their first since their two-year-old daughter Chloe was born. When Harper stumbles across the body of one of the pipeline workers lying beside a pathway through the woods, she is shocked to learn that he has been shot. An Iraqi war veteran with experience of crime scenes she is soon concerned that this was no accident. When a fellow camper stumbles into their camp the very next morning, dishevelled and distressed and claiming that her husband is missing, soon all thoughts of escaping the forest are abandoned as she gets dragged into the investigation, very soon finding herself in mortal danger and in the hands of deranged and angry kidnappers. Will Harper have the tenacity, skills, willpower and courage to escape or is she destined to be made an example of and face a merciless execution?

‘In The Woods’ is a complex crime story with a host of characters that have motives to commit the various crimes within the story. It is well paced with many sub-plots and twists and turns. It contains comic scenes and scenes of threat and depravity. With a few crimes to solve and many different axes to grind the thrilling climax was hard to second guess. I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers of ‘In The Woods’ for my advance reading copy in return for an honest review.