The Woods Are Waiting by Katherine Greene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Woods Are Waiting is a solid debut. It is a fairly simplistic story, but was easy to understand and I enjoyed the overall tone of Greene’s writing.
To be honest, I’m not sure how long the story and characters will stick in my mind, but I would absolutely pick up future work from this author.
In this story we’re following two women, Cheyenne and Natalie. They were childhood best friends, but after Cheyenne moved away suddenly, they lost touch.
Both born and raised in Blue Cliff, Virginia, the women are well versed in the local town lore and superstitions.
Cheyenne, who was raised in the mountains by her single-eccentric mother, in part fled the town to be done with all that stuff. She couldn’t take it anymore.
When a child disappears in Blue Cliff though, Cheyenne receives a call that the event has put her mother in a tailspin and she needs to return home.
The missing boy is all too reminiscent of the three children who were kidnapped and murdered five years before. A man named Jasper went to jail for those killings, but was recently released on a technicality, now another boy is gone.
Nat never left Blue Cliff and she’s surprised when Cheyenne returns. Will the two women being able to repair their relationship long enough to figure out this new disappearance before it’s too late?
As mentioned above, I particularly enjoyed the feel of this. Set in a small town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, this narrative had a sort of Hillbilly Noir quality to it that I have enjoyed previously in Crime Fiction books such as The Familiar Dark and Out of the Ashes.
It was gritty and I enjoyed all the local lore that the main plot points revolved around. The characters as well were easy to follow, learn about and were mostly likable.
There’s a lot of drama in the town and I think Cheyenne is fairly quickly reminded about why she left. I also tend to love the trope of someone returning to their hometown after many years and investigating some sort of mystery, so this one checked that box as well.
I didn’t really enjoy the pace though. By the time I got to the 50%-point, I still felt like nothing happened. Not like in a slow-burn sort of way either, more in a hum-drum, there’s no action-way.
I think maybe the construction of the story was just slightly too simplistic, so it didn’t really have a chance to build any good suspense, in my opinion. Because of this, I also don’t feel this story is particularly memorable.
With this being said, this is a debut and I do think it is a great effort. I will definitely pick up whatever this author chooses to write next. I think there is a lot of potential here for growth and I am happy to go along for the ride.
Thank you to the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m looking forward to seeing where Greene’s work goes from here.