What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.
For decades afterward, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods―no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.
Review:
This was exactly the type of mystery/thriller book I love. I think I said before that I am pretty good at figuring out “whodunnit”, but that’s part of the fun for me. I like to come up with my theories early on and then see which (if any) of them play out.
Shocker – one of my earlier theories pulled through, BUT the ride was a whole hell of a lot of fun. This book had everything that creeps me out – serial killer, a potentially wrongful conviction, a shit-ton of suspects (it’s difficult to trust anyone, really) and a creepy ass secret of what really lies in the woods.
The book takes place in a small town in Washington state, and our main character – Naomi Shaw – has been through some stuff! When she was 11, Naomi was playing in the woods with her friends when someone attacked and stabbed her 17 times. Her two friends Olivia and Cassidy said that they saw the man who did it and identified the suspect as Alan Michael Stahl – a suspected serial killer. Naomi corroborates their story, testifies against him and sends the man to prison for life.
Twenty years later, Naomi has changed her last name to help keep her identity a secret and works as a photographer in Seattle. To say Naomi is broken is an understatement. Her face is badly scarred, but she wears her scars with a sense of defiance. As one would expect, she’s also deeply emotionally scarred and makes a lot of unhealthy choices in life because of it.
When Naomi gets a call that Stahl has died in prison, she feels a sense of relief – maybe she can finally put all of this behind her, so she travels to her hometown to reconnect with Liv and Cass, but when she gets there, she notices something is wrong with Liv. She was always the more emotionally fragile of the three friends, but she seems especially off. Naomi then questions whether she may have lied in court. She can’t honestly remember being stabbed by Stahl – she doesn’t remember seeing him. She just trusted her friends when they told her it was him, but as she digs she realizes it doesn’t make sense. Stahl’s other victims were older women and he sexually assaulted them, but neither applied to Naomi.
Enter a podcaster who has decided to look into Stahl more closely. At first, he is a thorn in Naomi’s side, but he might be able to help her figure out what really happened to her that day. But that might mean she will have to tell him about the other secret – the secret of what really lies in the woods and while it’s a pretty creepy secret, it’s not the last of them in this twisty, turny book.
I won’t go any further lest I spill secrets I shouldn’t. If you’re a fan of mysteries and thrillers, I would highly recommend this one.
