Advantages: Pace and plot Disadvantages: Well-crafted rather than literary genius
they wish, and submits it anonymously. Many of them are about ''the first time''; many of them are soft porn and probably never happened. This is normal. What is not normal is that suddenly Lucy Gold needs, not wants ? desperately needs, to know who wrote what she is reading. The first instalment of somebody's journal shakes her to the core.
Harlan Coben opens The Woods as he opens many of his stories: with the mysteries. It takes only a few pages to have you puzzle-minded brain wondering: who, what, and, above all, why?
Then he gives you a little respite. Released from questioning Paul Copeland goes back to work. He has a high-media-profile case. A young stripper called Chamique is accusing the prep boys of rape. A frat party, where an exotic dancer goes a step to far and regrets it, or the privileged and protected getting out ...
a particularly sympathetic character, either, deserving the odd kick up the backside for being thoughtless and insensitive. Naoko's vagueness is realistically frustrating, her room-mate Reiko's wicked humour warm and affecting. Midori is a whole bundle of bizarreness, her wittering and bluntness endearing, her family tragedy overwhelming, and her emotional openness stunning and moving.
Murakami's evocative character-scapes take in everything from 60s popular culture, to love, to heartbreak, sex (casual and otherwise, in quite graphic and yet moving detail), strangeness, and of course mental illness. And yet there is not one hint of coarse sentimentality. Norwegian Wood is moving because it taps into universal experiences; even if you have never been depressed you will certainly be able to identify with some of the emotions laid out in almost ...
Advantages: Gripping story Disadvantages: You won't want to put it down!
Readers of my reviews will probably know that I am quite a fan of Harlan Coben. An author introduced to me by my daughter, and I am now reading my way through every book I can get my hands on that he has written!
The Woods is another stand alone novel by Coben, and another fantastic thriller which I found difficult to put down until I had finished it, and had me hooked from the first page.
In 'TheWoods' we are introduced to Paul 'Cope' Copeland, a widowed parent and also a County Prosector, a position that does not sit too favourably with some people.
His latest case is to get a conviction on two young students accused of date rape, one of whom has a rich and influential father who is determined he will stop at nothing to get his son off the hook, and after a few veiled threats don't work, employs a Private Investigator to try ...
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