The Boy From The Woods by Harlan Coben

In 1986 a young boy, approximately 6 years old, is discovered surviving in the woods. No-one knows where he came from or how long he has survived alone. Thirty four years later the boy, Wilde, lives in the community that found him. Wilde manages to straddle modern society with his desire for solitude and living off the grid. Surviving in the wild, along with military training, give him skills that are useful as a private investigator. Skills that he has to put to use when a high school student goes missing.

Harlan Coben is the master of suspense. His novels grip you from the start, move with pace and are full of twists. The Boy From The Woods is no different. The preface gives the story of Wilde being discovered living alone in the woods, this really grabs the readers attention, making you want to find out more about this situation. Coben then leaves you dangling by jumping forward in time to the story of the missing student.

Wilde is a mysterious character. As the story develops we find out little snippets about his past, however you constantly want to know more. Having been found as a young boy Wilde has acclimatised to modern society but is much more at home living a solitary life in the woods. The skills that he picked up as a child have been honed over time to make him an expert in tracking and evasion.

The story of the missing student initially seems run of the mill, however we know that with Harlan Coben nothing is ever that simple and suddenly we have kidnap, blackmail, secret recordings, murder and a presidential candidate all thrown into the mix.

Wilde is supported by Hester Crimstein, a famous lawyer. At a couple of points throughout the story Crimstein makes reference to a couple of friends. Fans of Coben will immediately identify those friends as Windsor Horne Lockwood and Myron Bolitar, after all, who else says "Articulate" when they answer the phone.

Having received a copy of The Match to review, I was surprised to discover it was the second book in a series, hence my reading The Boy From The Woods. I hope that The Match answers some of the many unanswered questions regarding Wilde's background.