The God of the Woods

Moore’s latest (following Long Bright River) is a seamlessly woven crossover lit-fic mystery set in the atmospheric Adirondack Mountains. In the summer of 1975, Barbara Van Laar, the rebellious teenage daughter of a wealthy land-owning family, asks to attend the summer camp her family owns. Then she disappears from camp one night. Barbara isn’t the first Van Laar child to go missing on that tract of land; her older brother Bear disappeared 14 years prior, never to be seen again. As so many secrets are hidden within the Van Laar family, and the surrounding community is reliant upon the family’s land holdings, panic and suspicion take over. The novel’s artfully described setting and the intricately interwoven plots and perspectives of its many players—some innocent and others monstrous—result in expert storytelling that is equally fascinating and devastating.