Liz Moore’s “The God of the Woods” is a literary mystery novel set at a summer camp owned by a wealthy family in the Adirondacks. It weaves family lore together with teen angst, against a menacing backdrop of betrayal and danger, and kept me turning pages with its masterful pacing.
The Van Laar family has a complex relationship with Camp Emerson, the summer camp that abuts their summer estate. While they jealously guard the camp’s pristine woods and waters, it’s not a camp that the Van Laar children attend. Until the summer of 1975, that is, when 13-year-old Barbara insists on being a camper. When Barbara goes missing one night, echoing the disappearance of her older brother, Bear, fourteen years before, the family’s secrets begin to unravel.
The novel moves between past and present, and among multiple protagonists: camp counselor Louise, camp director TJ Hewitt, rookie state patrol officer Judyta Luptack, Barbara’s friend Tracy, and Barbara herself. There are clues and red herrings, betrayals and deceptions, with past and present by turns illuminating and obscuring the truth. This is one of those books that threatens to keep you up well past your bedtime, demanding just one more chapter …
