The Woods in True Crime and everything else in between

Apr 07, 2008 Patti rated it really liked it

I liked this book because it was a "couldn't put down" kind of book. I wanted to keep reading it to find out what's going on now.
Paul Copeland is a County Prosecutor who along with his parents and sister Camille,were from Russia and moved to the US when Paul was 4 yrs old. In the present day-Paul is a widower and has a 6 yr old Daughter. Go back 20 yrs,when Paul was a teenager who helped out at a camp that the rich kids as well as the not to well off kids would spend their days in the summer. B I liked this book because it was a "couldn't put down" kind of book. I wanted to keep reading it to find out what's going on now.
Paul Copeland is a County Prosecutor who along with his parents and sister Camille,were from Russia and moved to the US when Paul was 4 yrs old. In the present day-Paul is a widower and has a 6 yr old Daughter. Go back 20 yrs,when Paul was a teenager who helped out at a camp that the rich kids as well as the not to well off kids would spend their days in the summer. But one summer night, 4 of those kids go running off in the woods where the camp is located and end up missing. Paul's sister Camille is one of them. After an exhaustive search,2 of the kids are found dead. Murdered. But Camille (Paul's sister) is not one of those that they find. Is she alive? Is she dead too,but put somewhere else? They eventually find the person they feel is responsible due to other murders he commits elsewhere. He too, worked at that camp and at the same time those 4 kids went missing,not to mention the 2 that were found murdered. So,they assume he killed them too. But he never goes to prison for those murders. He goes to prison due to the other murders he committed. Paul's parents can't cope with the fact that their Daugher is missing. His Mother leaves them and goes...where? Paul doesn't know-his Father claims he doesn't know either. But his Father goes into those woods seeing if he can find the grave that his Daugher may be buried in.
Then Paul gets word of a body that is found-he is asked to identify the body due to newspaper clippings that were found on the body regarding the incident that happened in those woods 20 yrs ago. His identification says it's Gil Perez-one of the kids that went missing that long ago night. But Gil's parents say otherwise. Who's telling the truth? Paul or Gil's parents? At the same time this is happening to Paul-Lucy who was Paul's girlfriend at the time of the "incident" and is also the person he was with that night-comes into play. She is now a Professor at a College-one of her assignments is to have her students write a journal (anonymously)about something that happened in their life that impacted them. A journal shows up that details almost exactly of what happened that night! Who wrote this journal and why? Lucy has since changed her name because of that tragedy due to the fact that it was her Father that owned that camp. The families of the missing kids sued him for not having better security that night. She has told no one about that night except for only 1 person-and that person is someone she trusts completely and was not one of her students. So,she tries to find who wrote this journal and then feels it's time that her and Paul should get together again (after 20 yrs) so that these mysteries can be solved.
And the mysteries do get solved-with alot of twists and surprises.
Was that body that was found 20 yrs later really Gil Perez?
Whatever happened to Paul's sister Camille?
Not to mention Paul's Mother?
Was that other Camp worker who was found Guilty of Murdering those other people,guilty as well of what happened to those 4 kids that went running in the woods that night,20 yrs ago?
You'd be surprised at what the answers are to some of those questions.
Read the book and find out for yourself!

...more

10 likes · Like · see review