4.5 stars rounded down to 4 as I expected more from the ending.

Great piece of crime fiction. Two siblings go missing years apart at a summer camp that belongs to their wealthy family. It takes the investigation of the second case to discover what happened to Bear.

Read it over two days. Very engaging. Well plotted.

Nestled in the charming setting of Camp Emerson, this gripping tale centres on the puzzling vanishing of Barbara Van Laar, daughter of the affluent couple Peter and Alice Van Laar. Echoing a haunting past, the disappearance of "Bear" Van Laar, Barbara's sibling, fifteen years earlier adds layers of mystery. With each page, the plot thickens, unravelling a web of secrets and unexpected revelations.
Through skilful storytelling, Moore paints a vivid picture of Camp Emerson, immersing readers in its idyllic yet foreboding atmosphere. From clandestine meetings to heart-pounding discoveries, the journey to uncover the truth is a rollercoaster of emotions.
This is a very slow burner and I almost gave up but after reading others views saying they are glad they didn't I stuck at it. It definitely gets better as it progresses through and the ending I found extremely satisfying

It took a while for me to get in to the story- the narrative swaps from character to character often and I needed to get them straight in my mind. Some of the main characters are thoroughly obnoxious, others quite endearing. I had no idea how it would end and was surprised and pleased with the ending. The writing is easy to read, once you get used to the style, and I was able to picture the land and woods in upstate New York.

A boy goes missing in the woods, never to be found, and years later his sister disappears from her bunk at camp in those same woods…

This book is slow, but incredibly atmospheric because of that narrative tempo. As a reader, you FEEL those woods around you and the secrets that they hold. Masterful writing.

A captivating portrayal of a different place, a different time, and two missing children from the same family...
An easy to read, quietly gripping tale of families collapsing, secrets emerging and different classes colliding, against an unknowable deep forest backdrop.
The narrative moves quickly yet deftly between timelines and characters - but each are handled well enough so the reader is not confused and quite happy to drop into the different scenarios.
Some characters you are really rooting for, some are quite unlikeable, but all are well drawn with authentic motivation and actions.
The reveal of what actually happened to each of the missing children was rather tame, but the story was quite engrossing and enjoyable enough that I didn't mind that the final destination was rather unsuprising, it was still satisfying.

A gripping slow burn with multiple layers. I loved the way it showed the inequalities in class and all of the different characters. A different type of mystery that keeps you wondering.

If I’m honest this book was more of a 3.5 star as although I loved the different timelines I felt that they jumped about a little too much. This is obviously more of an editing issue and the author definitely deserved 4 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for this ARC

What an intriguing tale. I loved the way the story unravelled and the jump from past to present and chapters told by different characters was so well handled that I was never confused. I was fascinated by the Judy, the young rookie detective and how she 'coped' with the case, as well as the daughter who 'disappears', Barbara Van Laar even though her name didn't seem to suit her...?! So glad it didn't fizzle out in the end as so many other books do.

When teenager Barbara Van Laar goes missing from the summer vacation camp owned by her parents, speculation is rife. Fourteen years earlier, her eight-year-old brother, Bear, had also gone missing, and was never found. Is there a connection? Secrets and suspicions among the locals resurface as rookie investigator Judyta tries to find out the truth. This is an engrossing and layered mystery set in the Adirondacks during the 1950s to the 1970s, when women were expected to conform to society’s expectations and had to struggle for any sort of position in the community not bestowed on them by marriage. Similarly, the working class have to bow to the whims of their rich employers at a time when factories and industry were often failing. The Van Laars and their wealthy guests have a luxury lifestyle but their lives are hollow, ruled by appearances and the need to make money. Parental expectations are oppressive, and staff are considered disposable, even if this means ruining lives. The narrative is told from the viewpoints of several of the characters, adding a richness and complexity, as the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Judyta, meanwhile, faces resistance from her parents and misogyny among her work colleagues as she sets out to prove herself as part of the investigating team, and it is her compassion and determination that leads to a breakthrough at last. Powerful and insightful, this is an impossible book to put down, never letting up on the tension but also shining a light on attitudes and prejudices that have probably not completely been left behind. Unforgettable and unmissable.

Wealthy teen Barbara disappears from her bunk at a summer camp in the same place her brother disappeared 15 years earlier. Told from various viewpoints and across different timelines, this is a coming-of-age story about child/parent relations as well as a mystery.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

This Story looks at an American holiday, summer camp and the people that built and run it.,two children of this family have gone missing 15 years apart .
To begin with this seems to be a straightforward escaped loony and a holiday park kind of story that you quickly begin to see there’s more to it. The story flips between the two main time periods as we gradually learn more and more about the missing children and their family
The novel is peopled with a selection of totally believable if somewhat eccentric on occasion characters The book does switch between points of view quite quickly which I’m not very good at keeping up with, but I managed to in this book better than I have in a lot of other novels
The author is a master of the teasing reveal as you learn more and more of the relevant facts in the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of their two children . Little clues appear as a story progresses that explains what has happened to the two children
The author has a clear easily read writing style, and the novel was an easy enjoyable read.

Although the novel is set in America leadership knows enough about USA summer camps to allow us to picture the setting easily. As I’m writing this review I noticed it’s published on the 4th of July. It seems a particularly important American holiday date for publication.
I read an early copy of the novel, it is published on the 4th of July 2024 by Harper Collins, UK, Harper fiction
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK, Goodreads, and my book, blog, bionic, Sarah S books, wordpress.com, and after publication on Amazon, UK

Thankyou to riverhead for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. Please check out my review linked below on tiktok !
3.75 stars

Having loved Liz Moore's Long Bright River, I was especially keen to read her latest, a superb, superior, and cracking multilayered historical read that had me enthralled from beginning to end, her artful and complex plotting is second to none, and her creation and development of varied, flawed, nuanced, and authentic feeling characters is remarkable. Weaving intriguing mysteries across different time periods with care, humanity, and skill, this spans from 1951 to 1975, it opens at the exclusive Camp Emerson, located amidst the vibrancy and beauty of the Adirondacks, where a young teen girl is discovered by a counsellor as missing from Camp Emerson, but this is no ordinary girl, she is Barbara Van Laar.

Barbara is the daughter of the rich Peter and Alice, owners of the camp, and the nearny ostentatious large estate and more, many years earlier before Barbara was born, her brother, Bear, disappeared too, never to be seen again, Alice is understandably shattered, her world is broken, she turns to alcohol, there is no comfort to be found in the distant Peter. It is no surprise there is widespread chaos and panic following this tragic dark occurence, what on earth is going on, how can this possibly happen again? There are rumours that abound as we are immersed in what lies beneath the surface, and the perspectives of a number of different characters, in the shifting eras, including members of the local community, the family, and Judya, who investigates amidst the social norms and attitudes of the time that leave a lot to be desired.

This is a utterly gripping read that I did not want to end, touching on a wide range of themes and issues, incorporating class inequalities, family, marriage, being a mother, love, childhood, identity, community, misogyny, belonging, abuse, connections, disconnections and more. An astutely observed mystery with its life changing impacts, this is a compulsive read and drama that I recommend highly to readers who appreciate and want to be immersed in an unmissable, brilliant, seemingly mystifying, suspenseful novel. Looking forward with great anticipation to Moore's next book!! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

This was engaging throughout, with a tense mystery and a feeling of desperation to know what happened not just in 1975 but also sixteen years prior. Two stories woven together excellently to create a riveting read.

It’s a breath of fresh air to read about adults and children in such a realistic way. They really came to life on the page. I felt myself caring for the majority of them, and kept turning the proverbial page in an all-encompassing need to find out what would happen next. The ending was divine - I had no idea what was coming but couldn’t have come up with a better ending myself. Loved it.

I will say that having multiple characters share the same name was a challenge, especially when we barely knew them. It took a few moments each time they appeared on the page to parse who they were, which broke my immersion. Also very occasionally, the dates confused me - but I LOVED the addition of a little timeline at the beginning of each chapter reminding us where we are. That is something all books should introduce!

Overall a very enjoyable read. I’m glad I picked this book up.

The God of the Woods is the mystery surrounding Barbara Van Laar, a girl who goes missing from a summer camp. Her disappearance is eerily similar to that of her brother Bear, some years earlier.
It’s a bit of a slow stater but it soon picks up. It’s told from different points of view and timelines but you don’t get lost within them all. It’s a gripping read that kept me interested from start to finish. One to look out for this year!

This book was a slow burner, which I nearly gave up on and I'm so glad I didn't!!

Barbara Van Laar, the daughter of a wealthy couple, goes missing whilst at camp. 14 years earlier her brother Bear also went missing and he was never found. Is history repeating itself or this an entirely different scenario?

A story of relationships, grief, privilege, parenthood and so much more

In 1960, beloved son and scion of a wealthy banking family, Peter 'Bear' Van Laar went missing during an annual weekend party at the family's summer estate. Fifteen years later, Barbara Van Laar (Bear's sister, born after his disappearance) goes missing while attending the summer camp which borders the family's estate.

What happened to Bear, and what is happening to Barbara, provides the meat of a plot which moves between 1975 and the 1950s, the sections set in the 1950s charting the marriage of Bear and Barbara's mother to their father, Peter Van Laar, and the 1975 chapters focusing in on a handful of characters, including an investigator, one of the first women to hold the title, one of Barbara's camp bunkmates, and a counsellor at the summer camp. Splitting perspectives between different times and characters is a common trope but one that requires a good writer to pull it off successfully, and Moore more than manages.

Moore weaves a gripping and complex tale of privilege, wealth, small-town poverty and secrets, a tale that is both tragic and not without hope.

I enjoyed this story. It was well written, especially with the number of characters and their timelines. It could have got confusing but I found it easy to keep up with them all..

Firstly, I enjoyed this thriller/mystery against my expectations: the first few pages did not bode well, but I persevered and by the end was glad I had stuck with it. I did not see the twist coming.
Telling two stories at once, it focuses on the van Laar family, privileged and arrogant, who have for several generations owned a country home up in the Adirondaks in New York State. In the early 1960s their little boy goes missing during a big party, and is never found, leaving his young mother turning to pills and alcohol to dull the pain of her unhappy and unfulfilled life. Fourteen years later, it seems that history has repeated itself, as the teenage daughter of the family fails to return one night to the summer camp, held on the van Laar estate each year. Police are called in but are at a loss, clutching at straws in order to apportion blame to someone - anyone - to appease the furious but strangely composed family.
The writing, once settled into its stride, is clear and direct. The characters are sufficiently convincing, if not wholly three dimensional, to make the reader turn the pages to find out what will happen next. This is a pleasing addition to the crime catalogue.

I found it slow to get into this book but once I had sorted out the characters, I was engrossed. Covering the disappearance of Barbara, the teenage daughter of a wealthy local family, we are led through the strata of upper-class American society and the people they consider as servants and socially inferior. The story is told from the view-point of many different characters, each with their own time line and the tension builds slowly throughout the book. The young detective, Judy, was an excellent character and really drew the whole scenarios together.

This is the first novel I've read by Liz Moore and wow, what a book! Although it's a hefty read (500+ pages), it's a real page-turner so I read it very quickly. The story is about a young girl who goes missing in 1975 from summer camp, but it transpires that her brother also disappeared from the same site 15 years before. The novel then expertly interweaves through the two different timelines, quickly developing two compelling stories and a host of intriguing characters. The book doesn't shy away from showing the flaws of human nature - the light and dark of our characters - and explores complex ideas including class structure, addiction, motherhood, misogony, and what it means to be a family. I think this will be a huge summer hit!