Harlan Coben’s books are such a pleasure to read, all of them, including THE BOY FROM THE WOODS. Even better, Coben does not shy away from including characters who are capable, smart, and gutsy senior citizens. This is unlike most other popular fiction, as if anyone over 40 could not be interesting.

No spoilers: the boy from the woods, Wilde, is a grown man now, looking into the disappearance of a teenager at the request of the teenage son of Wilde’s best friend, the now-deceased son of Hester. You’re probably already familiar with Hester if you’ve read any of Coben’s other books, especially those in his Myron Bolitar series. She is the lawyer who has made appearances in Coben’s books for years. In THE BOY FROM THE WOODS, Hester is now a senior citizen and one of the main characters.

As usual in Coben’s books, THE BOY FROM THE WOODS has so much going on. Another teenager, same age, same school, also goes missing. Hester and Wilde both become involved in these cases, which are first one thing, then another, then another. Somehow, a politician who works with the father of one of the missing teenagers is also involved, and that’s another story. There are twists and turns and more to the stories right to the end.

I wonder if I missed something, though: what about the guy in Sing Sing?

THE BOY FROM THE WOODS is a standalone book. I’ve read suggestions that Coben make this the beginning of a new series with Wilde. But it looks to me like Coben made that unlikely. Still, he did leave something about Wilde hanging in the wind. That's not like him.

Good read. Nothing too exciting. Liked characters.