64 pages • 2 hours read
The Woods
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Prologue-Chapter 8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual violence, rape, mental illness, death, death by suicide, animal cruelty, and substance use.
Prologue Summary
Paul Copeland recalls when he secretly followed his father into the woods of his old summer camp, Camp PLUS, as a teen. Paul’s father, Vladimir, cried openly as he dug through the dirt night after night, searching for Paul’s murdered sister, Camille. Paul thought he was well hidden, but one night, his father told him to stay behind. Two decades later, Vladimir is on his deathbed, and he agitatedly pleads with Paul to keep looking for Camille after he dies.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Three Months Later”
Paul and his sister-in-law, Greta, watch Paul’s daughter, Cara, do gymnastics at her school. Greta and her husband, Bob, help Paul with Cara since Paul’s wife (Greta’s sister), Jane, died five years ago. Two detectives enter the gym. Paul is the Essex County prosecutor but doesn’t know these men, which worries him. He went into the legal profession after Camille’s death. He wonders what Camille’s life would be like had it not been cut short. The detectives beckon Paul over, and Greta offers to watch Cara.
Detectives Tucker York and Don Dillon question Paul outside. York asks about Paul’s whereabouts the previous night and whether he knows a man named Manolo Santiago, who was murdered in Manhattan.
