The Woods

June 15, 2020
London teacher Tess Cooper, the unreliable narrator of this tangled psychological thriller from British author Savage (The Woman in the Dark), can’t refuse her father’s request to return to her family’s house in West Dean to see her dying, cancer-stricken stepmother, despite her lingering trauma over the accidental death of her older sister, Bella, then 18, in the nearby forbidding forest a decade earlier. Her one hope is that returning home might finally trigger memories of her sister’s last hours—a period that Tess, who was found unconscious near Bella’s body, has never been able to recall. When the discovery of a skeleton by a demolition crew at a vacant neighboring property prompts the police to take a fresh look at Bella’s death, the trouble really begins. Since the characters, most of whom are guarding secrets they’re keen to keep buried, behave in ways that serve to jack up the suspense but don’t otherwise make much sense, readers may struggle to engage with their plights. One is left feeling like the lost hiker in the woods who belatedly realizes they’ve been going around in circles. Agent: Juliet Mushens, Caskie Mushens (U.K.).