The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben

"How far would you go to save millions of lives, Wilde?"
"...life is lived in the gray. Life is lived in the nuances."

This is an entertaining standalone suspense and mystery novel by a prolific writer who's had a couple of his books adapted to Netflix miniseries. The main character is the boy from the woods - his name is Wilde, and he was found ages ago as a feral child who had been living on his own in the local state forest in the Ramapo Mountains outside Westville. "It's like Mowgli in the 'Jungle Book' movie" He was adopted and years later becomes a partner with his foster sister in a PI business and still lives in Westville in a special home in the woods. Wilde is connected to Hester Crimstein, a 70-something defense attorney and local television celebrity, through her deceased son, David, and is godson to David's son Matthew. Wilde and David had been good friends so when Matthew asks Hester to find a missing friend, Hester engages Wilde to help. The plot evolves further when another teen later goes missing as well and his wealthy parents need Wilde and Hester to help them with sensitive issues involving a presidential candidate who some feel is the "most dangerous man in America." NO SPOILERS.

This was quite the convoluted tale with a heavy political theme and actually didn't reveal as much about the main character, Wilde, as I had hoped. The story line was fairly predictable and long-time readers will probably recognize some familiar characters, especially Hester. The narrative is straight forward and everything is tied up neatly for the reader. I wonder if Coben intentionally didn't give too much information about Wilde so to revisit his character in the next book. I've read all the standalones by this author and will likely read the next as they are all so similar in basic ways to provide a good diversion for a couple of hours.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the e-book ARC to read and review.

This is a standalone and not part of a series although there are some reoccuring characters.
Genre - mystery, suspense