by Harlan Coben
First published 2008
Paul Copeland serves as prosecutor for Essex County, New Jersey, carrying the weight of an old tragedy. Two decades earlier, his sister vanished in the woods during summer camp. Authorities blamed a serial killer, but her remains were never recovered. Paul has built his career around seeking justice for others while his own family's case remained cold. Now he faces the most significant prosecution of his tenure. This new case forces Paul to reexamine everything he accepted about his sister's disappearance. The investigation pulls him back to that fatal summer, challenging his assumptions about what really happened in those woods. As Paul digs deeper, the boundaries between his professional duties and personal grief begin to blur. The case threatens to unravel not just Paul's understanding of the past, but his entire sense of truth. What he discovers will force him to confront whether justice and closure are the same thing, and whether some mysteries are meant to stay buried.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigation, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Essex County, New Jersey
Period: 2000s, 1990s
528 pages · ebook · Signet Book