The Woods

The Woods (2007) is a mystery thriller written by New York Times best-selling author Harlan Coben. The novel follows Paul Copeland as the unsolved murder of his sister and three other teens one night in the woods resurfaces after 20 years. At the same time, Paul’s old girlfriend, Lucy, receives an anonymous journal detailing his and Lucy’s actions on the night of the crime. Paul, desperate to know whether his sister, Camille, survived the attack, embarks on a quest to find the truth, even if it will shake everything he knows about himself and the people he loves. The Woods was adapted into a miniseries in 2020 by Netflix Poland.

This guide follows the 2020 Dutton first edition paperback.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of sexual violence, rape, mental illness, death, death by suicide, animal cruelty, and substance use.

Plot Summary

Paul Copeland, Essex County prosecutor, recalls how his father, Vladimir, dug through the woods at Camp PLUS searching for his murdered daughter, Camille. On his deathbed, Vladimir pleads with Paul to keep looking for her. Three months later, Detectives York and Dillon approach Paul after a man, Manolo Santiago, is murdered in Manhattan. Santiago had newspaper clippings of Paul and the Camp PLUS murders on him when he died. Three other teens—Margot Green, Doug Billingham, and Gil Perez—were murdered that night by serial killer Wayne Steubens, but Camille and Gil’s bodies were never found. Paul joins York and Dillon at the morgue. Paul initially doesn’t recognize Santiago, but when he sees a scar on the man’s left arm, Paul identifies Santiago as Gil Perez. Mr. and Mrs. Perez come in the next morning to confirm the identification, but they both claim that Gil’s scar was different.

Paul compartmentalizes his shock while he meets with two defense lawyers, Flair Hickory and Mort Pubin. Flair and Mort are defending two college boys, Edward and Barry, in a rape case involving 16-year-old Chamique Johnson, and want Paul to drop the charges. Chamique claims that the boys called one another Cal and Jim during the assault, which they believe clears their clients. Paul refuses their offer, but he and his chief investigator, Loren Muse, fret over the misidentification.

After retrieving his daughter, Cara, from his in-laws’ Greta and Bob’s house, Paul works on Chamique’s case and reminisces about Camp PLUS, where he had a girlfriend, Lucy Silverstein. Paul finds a picture that proves Mrs. Perez is lying about Gil’s scar. The next day, Paul questions Chamique on the stand about the assault. Chamique was invited to a frat party after previously working as a stripper at the fraternity, but partway through the night, Edward and Barry raped her. Edward’s father, EJ Jenrette, offers Paul money to drop the charges, and when Paul refuses, Jenrette threatens to dig into Paul’s past.

Meanwhile, Lucy, now a university professor with the surname Gold, meets with a student, Sylvia Potter, about an anonymous assignment. Sylvia leaves awkwardly as Lucy’s teaching assistant, Lonnie Berger, brings her the assignments to read. Lucy recognizes herself as the narrator of one of the stories. The journal details a girl’s intense summer fling with a boy, P, and how they heard screaming while making love in the woods.

Lucy begs Lonnie to find the journal’s author, and Lonnie claims that Sylvia sent it from the library. Lucy receives a follow-up journal that describes P covered in blood, but when Lucy confronts Sylvia, she admits to writing a different journal. Lucy visits her father, Ira, who was the owner of Camp PLUS. Ira’s mental health declined after the murders and a lawsuit, so he lives in a rehab facility. Lucy learns that someone named Manolo Santiago visited Ira, and ever since, Ira has been agitated.

As Jenrette continues to threaten Paul, Paul meets with his Uncle Sosh, a former Soviet Union KGB agent. Sosh explains the sordid truth about Vladimir’s emigration from the Soviet Union and the disappearance of Paul’s mother, Natasha. Paul asks Sosh to find out where his mother is now. Paul meets Raya Singh, Manolo Santiago’s girlfriend. Raya initially withholds what she knows from Paul, but when she trusts him, she reveals that Santiago believed Paul and Lucy lied about that night in the woods.

Flair badgers Chamique in his cross-examination about her criminal record, suggesting that she imagined the assault because she was intoxicated. This prompts Chamique to consider recanting and settling out of court. Instead, Paul calls a surprise witness, Jerry Flynn, who invited Chamique to the party. Cingle Shaker, a private detective, learned from Jerry that the fraternity loved an adult film with characters called Cal and Jim, which Edward and Barry forcefully re-enacted with Chamique.

Lucy leaves a message at Paul’s office to alert him about the journal. When Paul returns her call, she immediately starts crying. They meet at her office and discuss the strange things resurfacing. They visit Mrs. Perez, who continues to assert that Gil died 20 years ago, but Paul and Lucy are sure she’s lying. Paul confronts Mr. Perez, but the man can’t hide his grief as well as his wife.

Paul is shocked to learn that Bob embezzled funds from JaneCare, a memorial charity for Paul’s late wife. Greta asks Paul to lie about the missing money to save her family, but Paul feels betrayed. The next day, Paul visits Wayne Steubens in a Virginia prison. Wayne professes his innocence for the Camp PLUS murders, and he senses that Paul is unsure about his guilt. Paul then meets with FBI profiler Geoff Bedford, who caught and arrested Wayne, and shares his theory about Gil. Bedford refuses to entertain Paul’s theory because Wayne fits the psychopath profile.

Meanwhile, Lucy asks Ira about Manolo Santiago, but her questions irritate him, and he asks to meet with Paul alone. When Paul returns from Virginia, he helps Lucy confront the journal’s real author: Lonnie. A private investigation firm, MVD, hired Lonnie to submit the journal and gather information on Lucy and Paul. Paul learns that EJ Jenrette is bankrolling MVD’s investigation and that Raya is one of their undercover agents. Paul confronts Raya, who confirms that her task was to get close to Paul. Her original target was Manolo Santiago, who approached MVD claiming to have dirt on Paul. Glenda Perez, Gil’s older sister, pleads with Paul to stop harassing her family, but also reveals that Camille escaped with Gil.

While Paul considers the possibility that Camille is alive, technician Andrew Barrett uses ground-penetrating radar and finds a female skeleton in the woods. The skeleton’s characteristics match Camille, though they also indicate that she gave birth before she died. Muse visits the excavation site and meets Sheriff Lowell, the original detective on the case. Lowell continues to view Paul as a person of interest and asks Muse to be unbiased about Paul’s potential involvement.

Paul meets with Ira alone, and Ira confesses that Gil visited him using an alias. Ira then lures Paul into the woods and shoots him, hoping to stop his investigation. Lucy arrives at the scene with Detectives York and Dillon, who have found evidence that Ira murdered Gil. Ira tells Paul that Camille is dead and then uses a gun to die by suicide. Paul goes to the hospital with a minor gunshot injury, and Muse visits to tell him about the skeleton.

Paul temporarily leaves the hospital to check on Lucy, who is drinking heavily and tells him to leave her alone. At the hospital, Mrs. Perez confesses everything she knows to Paul: Gil and Margot broke up at camp, and Wayne Steubens convinced Gil to prank Margot by tying her up in the woods; Camille and Doug helped lure Margot out, but Wayne took the prank further by killing Margot; Wayne killed Doug, but both Gil and Camille escaped; Mrs. Perez and Natasha Copeland helped the kids hide, and Natasha planned to reunite with Camille.

Paul has no time to reconcile this information before Muse whisks him away to meet with Judge Pierce. Pierce, whom Jenrette also extorted, asks Paul to drop the charges in Chamique’s case, but Paul still refuses. Jenrette then hands Paul a file: Vladimir’s translated KGB file. It details how Vladimir betrayed Natasha’s parents to the Soviet government. Paul confronts Uncle Sosh, who admits that he already knew. Vladimir killed Natasha and buried her in the woods when he found out that she planned to run away with Paul to be with Camille, who he didn’t know was alive. Sosh confesses that he has been helping support Camille in hiding. Now that Camille believes she’s safe, she visits Paul at Sosh’s apartment.

The Epilogue wraps up various storylines: Edward and Barry are convicted of rape, Paul and Lucy rekindle their relationship, Bob is released on bail with Paul’s help, and Camille moves in with Paul and Cara. Paul visits Wayne, and Wayne reveals that he knew Paul would be off duty when he murdered Margot and Doug. Paul confronts Lucy, and she admits that Wayne asked her to distract Paul that night. As the novel ends, Paul is uncertain about his future with Lucy.