Book Review - Maureen Johnson's The Box in the Woods
The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: June 15th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy
Solving that which no one else was able to solve should be the biggest high a true crime geek will ever experience. And it is. It just doesn't last. The return to reality was a little harsher than Stevie expected. Spending the summer working at a grocery store at the deli counter isn't exactly the glamorous career she had planned for herself. I mean, the apron doesn't even go with her crime solving red vinyl raincoat! Thankfully she is about to be saved from a summer of drudgery by the new owner of a kid's summer camp in the Berkshires. Carson Buchwald is the owner of Box Box, a subscription box company, as in literal boxes, with delusions of becoming a true crime podcaster. Which is why he bought Shady Pines, the new moniker of a camp all true crime enthusiasts know by it's original name, Camp Wonder Falls. In 1978 four local teens who had just graduated high school in nearby Barlow Corners, Massachusetts, all counselors at the camp, were murdered. There was an old hunting blind about four miles from camp where the counselors were known to party. On that fateful July night the revelers, Todd Cooper, Diane McClure, and Sabrina Abbott were stabbed and stacked like cordwood in the hunting blind while Eric Wilde, the local drug dealer, almost made it back to camp. His body was found first. The most disturbing facts about the case were the brutality and the message painted inside the blind; SURPRISE. And yet the case was never solved. It wasn't a drug deal gone bad or the work of local serial killer "The Woodsman" as DNA ruled him out, and a revenge killing just didn't make sense. The case was badly handled and entered the lore of famous unsolved crimes. Which is why Carson wants to hire Stevie. She'd come and work at the camp and solve the case for his podcast. The chance to get away from deli meats means she'll even brave the wilderness. She is so not the outdoorsy type. Which means a support network is needed and Nate and Janelle agree to come with. They are on the case. Unfortunately the town is rather hostile once they realize Carson's intentions. It looks like he was trying to buy them off with a shiny new library. And in a way he was. Because the answer has to be among the townsfolk. It's the only thing that makes sense. Why else was it never solved? Because someone didn't want it solved. That someone isn't Sabrina's sister Allison. She's willing to help Stevie. But that help might cost her her life. Because more than four people have died and the killing will continue unless Stevie connects the dots.
The Box in the Woods is a bit of a reset for this series. The first three books were dealing with one case and all it's connecting repercussions at Ellingham Academy. Here Stevie is removed from that academic setting and into that most classic of teen horror tropes, a summer camp. And as everyone knows the best parts of a summer slasher are technology breaking down and there being nowhere to run. Which makes the seventies the perfect era for the "historical" crime to be set. And thankfully we are all about the historical in this installment and veer away from the hysteria that Stevie's boyfriend David brings in his wake. Seriously, I agree with so many reviewers who are just fed up with him. He brings nothing to the conversation and this book was all the better for his being almost entirely omitted. What really drew me in though was that this small little town and it's summer camp is Gilmore Girls meets Twin Peaks that just happens to shoehorn in a slasher flick and some Nazis. So yes, you might think that sounds all over the place, but if you're the right kind of person, AKA someone who I'd be friends with, you will totally get that all these disparate elements can fit together perfectly if you have the right mindset and sense of humor. Dark humor. But for me this isn't just a series reset it's also a turning point for Stevie. When she was investigating the Ellingham case all the principal characters were dead. She was legitimately investigating a true cold case, as in all the participates were cold in their graves. Here the crime happened in 1978 so, while not recent history weeps the reviewer who was born in that year, it's still a recent enough crime that those people directly affected, like Sabrina's sister Allison, are still alive. This is new and interesting. Stevie has had to deal with the fallout of a case and it's present day repercussions but she hasn't had to deal with the trauma of real people. She's so focused and inward when she's on a case she sometimes doesn't think of the bigger picture. Which is all well and good when it's a true cold case. When the obsession and the drive aren't running over victims. But here she could easily steamroller over someone to whom this case is an open wound. She has to tread carefully. Not just because the actual killer could still be alive but because the family of the victims are in need of support. They can help but there has to be respect and assurances. When dealing with Allison Stevie is growing. She's learning that there's more to solving crime than just the crime. There's the survivors. That aspect is one she needs to work on. But this is a good start.
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