Maureen Corrigan wrote that “The God of the Wood” should be “your next summer mystery,” and it should. Moore has crafted a literary suspense novel that is propulsive and immersive. NPR has compared “The God of the Wood” to Donna Tarte’s classic, “The Secret History.” The novel opens at Camp Emerson in the Adirondacks, a sought after destination for children of well-to-do New Englanders and Manhattanites. The camp, and the land on which it is situated, is owned by the Van Laars, an Albany banking family known to be “outdoorsy” but staid. The camp itself has been the province of the Hewitts, and T.J. (Tessie Jo) Hewitt, the serious and brusque director of Camp Emerson, had succeeded her father, Vic, as camp director and preserve groundskeeper in the summer of 1970 when Vic’s physical and mental infirmities could no longer be ignored.
In August of 1975, Alice Van Laar, is looking forward to a summer without Barbara “her rages, her storms, the hours she spends weeping aloud, disturbing the staff,” and prevails upon a reluctant T.J. to accept her 12-year-old daughter, Barbara, into the camp. Alice has been married to Peter Van Laar for 24 years, but he is stern, intolerant, and vicious, and Alice subsists on prescription pills generously doled out by her physician.
Barbara arrives at camp in punk attire, and stuns her shy and withdrawn bunkmate, Tracy Jewel, by befriending her. Tracy had been dumped in camp after her newly divorced father, who had a new girlfriend and a fancy rental house, declared that he did not want his daughter lying around all summer. Tracy had plans to “go unnoticed, hiding behind books whenever possible. Staying out of it. Blending in,” but she thrives under Barbara’s attention.
Barbara goes missing from camp. Her disappearance is first noticed by Louise Donnadieu, a counselor at Camp Emerson who had gone out that evening and left a counselor-in-training, Annabelle, on duty. Athletic, intelligent, and pretty, Louise had attracted the attention of John Paul. When Louise had to drop out of college, John Paul had suggested that she take a job at a summer camp owned by his godparents. John Paul represented the chance for Louise to enjoy a better life, and to rescue her younger brother from their alcoholic mother, but John Paul disappointed Louise by ignoring her while he was a guest of the Van Laars, and she enjoyed a mild flirtation with a good-looking dishwasher.
Barbara is not the first Van Laar to disappear. Her older brother, Bear, had disappeared 14 years ago, before Barbara was born. Many of the residents of the depressed town of Shattuck, which abutted the Van Laar preserve, who were trying to find Barbara had been involved in the search for Bear, including Carl Stoddard, a groundskeeper at the Preserve since 1956, who was the last person to see Bear and was the recipient of a cryptic message from the young boy. The indefatigable state trooper, Judyta Luptack, rounds out the characters whose point of view is alternated throughout the novel.
In addition to writing a tantalizing missing person mystery (with an escaped notorious murderer lurking in the woods) and an atmospheric family drama, Moore has crafted a solid social drama which reflects the strict divide between the Van Laars and their wealthy guests and the residents of Shattuck. Thank you Riverhead Books and Net Galley for an advanced copy of a novel that I will highly recommend.
The God of the Woods: A Novel
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Last update: 01-08-2025
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Stevie
A Literary Suspense Novel That Will Appeal to (Virtually) Everyone
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2024Lindsey B.
A deliciously slow burn thriller that had me hooked from the beginning
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2024Susie | Novel Visits
THE Book of the Summer!
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2024