Monday, April 14, 2025

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

The God of the Woods

This was a terrific read. I'll definitely seek out more of this author's work. This one is a complex mystery set in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Beautifully written with believable characters who are fully developed, it also has much to say about relationships and conflict: between rich and  poor, boys and girls, husband and wife, parents and children. 

Both narrative and dialogue are nicely handled. The timeline is a bit unorthodox, beginning with the disappearance of a child in 1975. Then it shifts to earlier events in the 1950s and 1960s before coming back to the 1970s to resolve the disappearance and other problems the characters wrestle with. For those who want to know how the author managed to keep all those balls in the air and wrap it up with a satisfying conclusion, listen to this podcast on the New York Times' website.

Further reading:

New York Times, July 22, 2024

Kirkus Reviews, July 2, 2024