The God of The Woods by Liz Moore
‘Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found'.
And so reads the blurb for ‘The God of the Woods’ by Liz Moore, a book that I’ve been seeing pop up a lot amongst my bookstagram friends. Such was the hype that I thought I'd move it to the top of my TBR list - I do enjoy a good literary thriller.
Literary Thriller
I was speaking to someone recently about what makes a good literary thriller. For me, it’s believable characters with depth, elements of darkness, and of course beautiful writing. And it has to be an absolute page turner. Pretty simple to do, huh?
Examples for me include Donna Tartt’s ‘A Secret History’ & Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ is a classic of the genre; those are two off the top of my head. Recent examples that I’ve reviewed include ‘Kala’ by Colin Walsh and I also enjoyed ‘Wild Houses’ by Colin Barrett.
It’s not an easy genre to nail. But when an author gets it right, it’s a pretty unbeatable formula. I don’t think there’s too many that can do it, though I’m sure others will have their own ideas (and favourites).
Too many thrillers have paper thin characters with weak motives. Sometimes I just enjoy a thriller as a page turner, and that’s fine - it can be like wanting to grab some fast food, rather than fine cuisine. But if there’s no meat on the bone I won’t remember or recommend it. So many books gain traction down to good ‘ol simple word of mouth and I know I’m not alone when I say that’s where most of my picks come from. Like this one.
Family mystery
At the beating heart of this book is a family mystery - 15 years apart, are the cases of the two missing Van Laar children connected? I do love a big tangled mess of family relationships, and the Van Laars have that in spades.
Characters
If a book is constantly switching narrators, like this one does, it’s important for me to enjoy each voice. And it also helps that each of these characters are so distinctive, so you never get them mixed up.
There’s Alice Van Laar, the distraught mother of the missing Bear and Barbara. Lost in grief, how much can we trust her account? Alice features across a number of timelines, but it’s down to the authors skill that I always knew where I was.
Tracy is one of the campers, a slightly awkward adolescent and completely taken with Barbara and of course noticing one of the boys. She’s shy and dealing with the break up of her parents marriage. How much does she know about the night that Barbara goes missing?
Louise was one of my favourites throughout, a camp counsellor who comes from a nearby town that relies on the Van Laars for work and is dealing with a boyfriend who’s better off than she is. She really needs this job, having dropped out of college, and is worried about her brother at home with a neglectful mother.
I also really liked Judy, the young female investigator making her way in what is very much a mans world. Her story could have been cliched, but it’s not - she’s making her way in life, and trying to prove herself, not just to her colleagues but her parents.Not easy.
Setting
I do love it when I see a map at the start of a book - it really helps me establish the location in my minds eye. The Adirondack mountains are a remote and scenic location, with the summer camp cabins nestled amongst trees, beside a lake and mountains. And of course the ‘big house’ of the Van laars, looking over the scene.
I think it’s also quite smart to set a book in the seventies. There’s no satellite images or mobiles - it’s difficult for anyone to completely disappear nowadays, with CCTV, dash cam footage and locations pinging off phone masts.
Themes
The wealth of the Van Laars allows them to feel they can dictate the investigation, giving them a sense of entitlement. It’s a book about the haves and have-nots, about intergenerational trauma and the fog of grief that never lifts.
The people who are more compassionate are the investigators and the people who work the camp. With the Van Laars literally looking down on everyone else, it’s the people on the ground who are interested in looking out for the children.
Summary
I had hunches the whole way through ‘The God of the Woods’, as you do as a reader, but I was kept guessing right up to the end. You would have needed a crowbar to get his book out of my hands for the last few chapters. Hard to believe this was 448 pages long - parts of this book I just inhaled.
It’s got that lovely balance of a cracking plot, perfect landscape and characters with believable backgrounds and motives. Oh, and wonderfully written and paced. I’ll certainly be checking out ‘Long Bright World’ and ‘The Unseen world’ by the same author.
‘The God of Woods’ by Liz Moore is absolutely what I would consider to be a literary thriller, and a fine one at that. I can say safely now that this will make my best reads of 2024 list, and I'm sure I won’t be alone.
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Pub Date 4 Jul 2024 Thanks to Harper Collins UK & Netgalley for the ARC
448 pages