The Woods

Harlan Coben's probably best-known as the creator of the sports agent Myron Bolitar, who spends quite a bit of time handling matters for his clients that don't fit on the negotiating table. Matters like murder, kidnapping, extortion, etc.

He also writes stand-alone suspense novels like The Woods, the story of how county prosecutor Paul Copeland, recently widowed, learns that some of what he knows about his past isn't so. Copeland is haunted by the death of his sister some 20 years earlier at the hands of a summer camp serial killer, as well as how he will be the parent his six-year-old daughter needs as they both heal from his wife's death. Then one of the supposed victims of the murder at the campgrounds turns up. He's dead, but he died a lot more recently than 20 years ago.

Coben is a gifted storyteller who writes with humor and focuses much of his attention on the impact of such horrible events to the lives of ordinary people and families. Family ties and the way they affect what people do anchor most of his work. And he's good enough at telling his story that even though The Woods reels in a serial killer, embezzling, the Russian mob and life in the former U.S.S.R., you don't necessarily realize how outlandish all these things are until after you've finished the book and are looking back at it.

The Woods isn't going to be the best Coben you read, and the Bolitar novels are probably a better place to start exploring him. But you could spend $10 on worse stuff to skim through before bed at night. And we all have.