What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars.

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.

And they were liars.

For decades, 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.

My Verdict

What Lies in the Woods is a slow burn mystery that was hard to put down. With good pacing, deep character development, and stellar writing, this is a thriller worth checking out.

Naomi survived a vicious attack when she was only eleven years old. She and her best friends Olivia and Cassidy were playing in the woods when Naomi was attacked and stabbed seventeen times. Cass and Liv saw the attack and were able to identify a man named Alan Michael Stahl, a suspected serial killer who the authorities were only too happy to send to prison.

Twenty years later, Naomi gets word that Stahl has died in prison, and wanting to bring some closure to her horrible experience, she decides to go home and reconnect with Liv and Cass. But rather than bringing her comfort, seeing her old friends only opens up old wounds. Liv is clearly distressed about something and claims she has a big secret she wants to tell Naomi. And that isn’t the only secret threatening to spill out. The three girls discovered something in the woods all those years ago and swore never to tell, but when tragedy suddenly strikes, Naomi begins to question her memories. What really happened that day in the woods? And how is the girls’ big secret connected to it? With the help of a podcaster who has his own doubts about what happened, Naomi embarks on a dangerous quest to find the truth.

Marshall shows how fragile memories can be and how over time you can convince yourself that something is true, even if it isn’t. I loved watching Naomi come to the realization that perhaps the events from the past happened differently than she remembers. Naomi was an interesting protagonist in many ways. She still has terrible scars on her face from the attack, a daily reminder of what happened to her. She changed her last name because she was tired of the notoriety that came with surviving a serial killer attack, and she just wants to be left alone. Coming back to the scene of the crime, so to speak, isn’t doing her mental health any favors, but you can see how badly she wants to discover the truth and put the past to rest.

The author gives each character an important role, and, of course, casts suspicion on many of them, making it challenging to guess the final outcome. All of the characters seem to be damaged in one way or another, and none of them are very good people, but honestly, doesn’t that make the story more interesting? I ended up really enjoying the relationship between Naomi and her estranged hoarder dad, who was never a very good father to her growing up and didn’t give her the support she needed after the attack. But seeing them interact as adults was one of the more heartwarming parts of the story.

I also loved the feeling of nostalgia I experienced during the flashback scenes, when Naomi, Liv and Cass spent hours playing something called the Goddess Game. The “game” revolved around Greek goddesses and magic, a heady experience that ultimately spiraled out of control. These scenes in the past leading up to Naomi’s attack were steeped in mystery, as the author only sparingly hands out details of the game and the actual events. I remember as a child myself having an overactive imagination, and I could see how the machinations of such a game could lead to misunderstandings and high emotions. The author brought the past and present together in spectacularly thrilling ways, and even readers who don’t like dual timelines will probably find themselves riveted by Marshall’s skillful plotting.

There were so many twists and turns in the last twenty percent of the story, I couldn’t stop gasping from shock! In fact, that might be the only negative for me, that there were just too many crazy twists so close together, I couldn’t keep up. That left me feeling like the ending was a bit much. I did love that Marshall chose a feel-good, emotional ending that felt highly satisfying. I cannot wait to read more from this talented author! I give this novel 3.5 stars.