The Woods (2007)

Twenty years after a serial killer dubbed the Summer Slasher murdered his sister and three other teens at the camp where he worked, Paul Copeland still suffers survivor's guilt. Now a prosecutor in New Jersey, he learns that one presumed victim actually escaped the massacre and has remained in hiding for the past two decades. His investigation leads to an aging hippie, a retired KGB agent, and his first love before drawing to an unsatisfying and far-fetched conclusion. Harlan Coben's new thriller begins with promise, but thinly drawn characters and a lengthy tangent about a rape case stall any momentum. The Woods smolders, but never ignites.