There is an extremely sinister atmosphere permeating the pages of this haunting story,creeping through the book like the fog that creeps across the fields and spreads its misty blanket through the trees. Shrouding objects and making them appear otherworldly and unrecognisable. The winds whistling through the trees
whispering of long buried secrets,deceptions,lies and betrayals in a mesmerising story that has fingers that reach back into the past.
Ten years have passed since Tess Cooper left the small village of West Dean in the Vale Of Glamorgan where she grew up. In all that time she has had no contact with any of the group that she used to hang out with during her teenage years, Max,Lena Jack and Sean. Ten years since her sister Bella`s death on the night that their dad Joe married Jack and Sean`s mother Julia, a night that Tess has no memory of. Through all that time, Tess`s dreams have been haunted by the woods around West Dean where Bella`s body was found.
But now Julia is dying and Joe has begged Tess to return home and visit her step mother before she dies. When Max contacts Tess and offers her a lift,she feels that she has no choice but to return to her childhood home. But soon old animosities rise to the surface and Tess swiftly discovers that,sometimes,the past cannot be laid to rest. Why can't Tess remember what happened on that fateful night? Was Bella murdered or was her death a tragic accident? There are many secrets that have stayed hidden for many years and there are certain people who would prefer that they stayed that way.
The story is narrated from Tess`s point of view and has chapters that flip back and forth between now and the events in the past that led up to Bella`s death. I spent most of the book not liking any of the characters in either time frame but like any good thriller there was characters who were not who they appeared to be and by the time I finished the book I ending up changing my mind about one of the characters. I thought teenage Tess was a very annoying character for various reasons.Despite Bella also having her dislikable moments I did feel a lot of sympathy for her. She was trying to be a average teenage girl and have a bit of fun. I loved the setting for this story,I love books that feature woods and forests in the story. I think they add their own character and are both spooky and sinister even when you walk through them in broad daylight.
The woods is an extremely well written,tightly plotted debut thriller that had me hooked in from the first page and frantically turning the pages. Once I started reading this book,I honestly didn't want to put it down. This is definitely one of my favourite books of this year and I look forward to reading more books written by this talented author in the future. Worth far more than five stars and very very highly recommended.
AUTHOR BIO
Vanessa Savage lives by the sea in South Wales with her husband and two daughters.
She started out writing women’s fiction but soon realized she wanted her characters to kill each other rather than kiss each other…
Turning to (fictional) crime, she now writes psychological thrillers.
- PUBLICATION DATE: 23rd January 2020
- PRINT LENGTH: 348 Pages
- PUBLISHER: Sphere
- GENRE: Women's Adventure Fiction
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