Genre: Suspense Thriller
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Release Date: Oct. 26, 2021
Order Link: Amazon
My Rating: 5 Breaking Hearts
Special thanks to Minotaur Books for an arc of this book.
A father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian mountains must reckon with the ghosts of their past in Kimi Cunningham Grant's These Silent Woods, a mesmerizing novel of suspense.
Review:
After the death of his fiance, Cooper took their newborn daughter and vanished. Eight years later, Coop and Finch are thriving, hidden away from the world in a rustic cabin with the bare minimums in the Appalachian Mountains. They make do by growing and hunting for food and with a once a year grocery delivery from Coop's old combat buddy Jake. Jake and a mysterious neighbor Scotland are the only two people Coop and Finch ever interact with. Coop is highly suspicious of Scotland, but he tolerates his sudden appearances because Scotland knows Coop's secret - knows what he did and why he can't return to civilization with his daughter. If anyone else learns the truth, they'll take Finch from him. Coop and Finch are happy in their isolation. Finch is a precocious child, smart as a whip and savvy in the ways of the land having been taught survival techniques by her father. However, eight year old Finch is becoming more and more curious about the outside world and all the things she's only ever read about like indoor plumbing, electricity, restaurants, schools, other children. One day while out hunting, Coop and Finch see a teenage girl with a camera on their land bordering the national forest, causing Coop to have a panic attack. While they stay hidden until the girl moves on, Coop's greatest fear of other people infiltrating their small world has happened. Finch's natural curiosity is to seek out the girl while Coop warns her to stay away from that area of their land. When Finch ignores his warning, what she witnesses will destroy their safe little corner of the world.
These Silent Woods is a beautiful, poignant story about a father and his daughter existing in a solitary world. Coop's secrets have the power to destroy that world and tear Finch away from him forever. He will not allow that to happen at any price. When people start invading their world, Coop knows their days are numbered. It's only a matter of time until someone discovers them and figures out who he is. These Silent Woods evolves through Coop's point of view with bits and pieces of the past intermingled in the present. Grant's characterizations are authentic to the point I felt I knew Coop and Finch, and my anxiety over their situation grew as the story unfolded and the ending appeared to be a given. The author's descriptions of the setting feeds all the senses from the breeze in the trees, to rivers swollen with rain, to meadows alive with wildlife, and birds calling. It's easy to imagine being there and seeing the wonder of it all through young Finch's eyes . . . until ugliness invades threatening their existence. It's important to avoid spoilers before reading this story to savor it as Grant renders it . . . one morsel at a time. It's been awhile since I've wiped tears while reading the final pages of a book, but I did with this one. These Silent Woods is a raw, emotional story that tugs at the heart strings. Highly recommended to fans of mystery, suspense and thrillers. Also to anyone who loves a good emotional, heartfelt story about the lengths a father will go to protect his child.
Synopsis:
No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world.
For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she’s starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her—and he’s still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.
The only people who know they exist are Scotland, an overly friendly hermit with murky intentions, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn't show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. When a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.
Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, These Silent Woods is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all.
For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she’s starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her—and he’s still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.
The only people who know they exist are Scotland, an overly friendly hermit with murky intentions, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn't show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. When a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.
Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, These Silent Woods is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all.
Kimi Cunningham Grant is the author of three books. Silver Like Dust is a memoir about her Japanese-American grandparents and their experience in the internment camp at Heart Mountain during World War II. Her second book, Fallen Mountains, is a literary mystery set in a small town in Pennsylvania, where fracking has just begun. In her third book, These Silent Woods (October, 2021), a father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian mountains must reckon with the ghosts of their past.
Kimi is a two-time winner of a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize in Poetry and a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in creative nonfiction. Her essays and poems have appeared in Fathom, Literary Mama, RATTLE, Poet Lore, Tar River Poetry, Apalachee Review, Grasslimb, and Whitefish Review.
She lives, writes, and teaches in Pennsylvania.
http://www.kimicunninghamgrant.com
Twitter: kimicgrant
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