Coben’s latest thriller busy to a fault

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/05/2020 (2335 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A bullied introverted high school girl goes missing and tracking her is Wilde — a reclusive Jason Bourne clone who spent his kindergarten-era years living a Mowgli-like existence in the dense forests of New Jersey.

Gasp alert: on this down-to-earth task Wilde soon unexpectedly stumbles upon a possible conspiracy that would put a demented demagogue in the Oval Office. Your book club can discuss if the scoundrel is entirely fictional.

And further, while searching Wilde romances his late best friend David’s widow, romances a high school art teacher and develops a bromance with the head of a private security army who’s protecting the aforesaid demagogue, and who shares Wilde’s particular set of special forces skills.

Wilde also mentors David’s troubled mixed-race son Matthew, seemingly the only one worried about the missing girl.

Pause for breath.

It’s a good thing Wilde is in such good shape — American thriller writer Harlan Coben seems determined to set a Guinness record for subplots.

The Boy from the Woods is entertaining enough, if you start by accepting that a five-year-old can thrive living in the woods, is able to speak and read English but has no memory of how he got there.

Still with us?

When little Wilde was finally caught 30 years ago, his only friend was David, whose widowed mother is 72-year-old fireball lawyer Hester Crimstein, who may resemble a current member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Your book club can discuss among yourselves.

In a smooth segue, we meet Crimstein just as she’s defending her client from Coben’s last book, 2019’s Run Away.

The widowed part is important, because darned if Crimstein doesn’t meet up with — no, that would be a spoiler, and subplot 23 of 37.

If Wilde reminds you of Jack Reacher, count how many times in each of his books that someone speaks, and Reacher “said nothing.” Now count how many times “Wilde said nothing.”

Look, there’s way too much going on here, there are subplots galore that may be connected or may be red herrings, there are way too many characters.

Coben does make some important points — he just makes too many of them for one novel.

Among them: no sane person would ever want to be a 15-year-old high school student again; impoverished minorities don’t receive justice in the U.S.; the rich are above the law; abusive homes destroy countless lives; and demagogues have such insidious, pervasive control of social media and technology they can get away with anything and convince their base day is night and the guilty is the victim.

The Boy from the Woods is a quick read for the summer cottage, but wait for public libraries to reopen — for once, Coben isn’t worth 37 bucks.

Retired Free Press reporter Nick Martin can still follow multiple subplots, but questions why you’d choose to make your brain hurt.