The God of the Woods by Liz Moore Book Summary
Check out my book summary of The God of the Woods, Liz Moore’s latest psychological thriller. If you love a good mix of mystery, literary fiction, and slow-burn suspense, God of the Woods by Liz Moore might be right up your alley. Set against the moody backdrop of the Adirondack Mountains, this book combines the intrigue of a missing person case with the emotional depth of a family drama.
This is a quick summary to remind you of the main points of the book before you read my full review. You should read the whole book if you haven’t to get all the small details and suspense that make this book so good.
Part 1 Barbara
Chapters 1-2
August 1975- The camp counselor, Louise Donnadieu, finds an empty bunk in the early morning, and realizes 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar is the one missing. Then she finds out the counselor in training, Annabel, with her wasn’t here when it was her turn to be on duty.
June 1975- Tracy is upset that her dad is sending her off to summer camp, and even more upset his new girlfriend, Donna, is the one dropping her off. Alice Van Laar, Barbara’s mother who lives in the house on the property next to camp, meets with the camp director, T.J. Hewitt, to have her daughter start at camp. T.J. Eventually gives in because Alice and her husband Peter own the camp, but Alice just wants some separation from Barbara and her behavior problems.
Chapters 3-4
June- Tracy realizes all the other campers in Balsam cabin know each other from years past, leaving her as the odd person out. That night, Louise finds Tracy crying, and Tracy tells her it’s because she’s scared of the stories the other girls told about Slitter. Knowing the common camp ghost stories, Louise assures Tracy that Jacob Sluiter, who inspired the stories, is in prison, but Tracy said that the new story is that he escaped.
August-Louise runs around camp looking for Barbara, but when she can’t find her runs to TJ’s office. After telling TJ that Barbara is missing, Louise lies and says that both her and Annabel were in the cabin. Louise also lies and says she hasn’t seen John Paul this week.
Chapters 5-7
June- The second morning, Barbara arrives at camp in Balsam cabin dressed as a punk, but she seems to like Tracy. Tracy and Barbara meet with their survival group together for the first time, and Tracy thinks another boy in the group, Lowell, is the cutest boy she’s ever seen. When Tracy talks to Barbara about it, Barbara says she has a boyfriend.
August- After TJ calls all the counselors to search the camp, one counselor asks about Barbara’s older brother, Bear, who also went missing years ago, but TJ insists that Bear was never a camper. While searching, Louise is thinking about her boyfriend, John Paul, who got her a job at the camp because his godparents are the Van Laars. John Paul had been at the Van Laar house with his family for a few days, but had yet to invite Louise over with them even though they were supposed to be engaged.
The night before, John Paul came looking for Louise while drunk, and found her having a campfire with another employee, Lee, who flirts with her a lot. Alice tries to get up for the phone after a big party last night, and somewhat registers a cop telling her that Barbara is missing.
Chapters 8-10
June-Alice finds Barbara has screwed a padlock onto her door, and after removing it, finds a disturbing mural on the wall with flags and weapons which Alice paints over. After Barbara and Tracy become friends, Barbara asks Tracy to cover for her when she sneaks out every night. Pretending to be paralyzed from the waist down, Jacob Sluiter escapes prison and starts making his way north to his family’s home town.
Part 2 Bear
Chapters 11-14
1950s- Alice, at 17 years old, gets invited to Peter Van Laars family summer home with her sister, Delphine, and Peter gets married to Alice that September. Within the year, they have their son, Peter or “Bear”, and Alice starts drinking because Peter says she’s boring at parties. Alice agrees she is boring, but Alice thinks Peter tries to be her social coach more than her husband.
1961-Carl Stoddard, volunteer firefighter and groundskeeper for the Van Laars, gets a call that Bear is missing. All they know is that 8 year old Bear had started a hike up the mountain with his grandfather, but ran back to his room because he forgot his pocketknife. Sometime after leaving his grandfather, he disappeared.
Chapters 15-17
1950s- When Bear is around five, Delphine’s sister’s husband, George, who was Peter’s friend suddenly dies of a heart attack. When Delphine comes to visit, she tries to convince Alice to go back to school, but Peter tries to convince Alice to stay away from Delphine.
1961- At the Van Laar house, also called Self Reliance, the four volunteers from town and the housekeeper, Vic Hewitt, learn that Bear and his grandfather, set out on the quarter mile trail to the mountain trailhead around 3. At the trailhead, Bear decided to turn back, and Carl remembers seeing Bear by the front door when he left work around 3:30. His grandfather says he set back for the house at 3:35 because of the rain, but didn’t see Bear at all.
The volunteers think it’s odd they tried to hike the mountain with a storm coming, and Carl remembers Bear telling him that he didn’t like his grandfather. The next morning, the region’s residents and the state police start a panicked search in the Adirondack woods for Bear. During the search, Carl passes out.
Part 3 When Lost
Chapters 18-21
July 1975- Tracy Lawrence that Barbara is good friends with TJ, and TJ even visits her at her house in Albany. Tracy gets a newspaper from Lowell with an article about Jacob Sluiter, and she learns that he was convicted of eleven murders over a decade ago in this area with even more disappearances rumored to be his work. Later, Lowell ask Tracy to sing with him while he plays guitar, and after Barbara is sure that he likes Tracy.
August 1975- When Tracy hears Barbara’s missing, Tracy sneaks away from the camp to check if Barbara is up nearby Hunt Mountain in the unused overlook cabin where she goes every night to meet her boyfriend. Tracy sets out alone thinking Barbara slept in up there, but Tracy gets lost in the woods on the way to the trail head. Judyta Luptack arrives with other state troopers at the camp, and they start sending all the kids home now that Tracy is also missing.
Chapters 22-26
August- Jacob decides to follow a stream that seems familiar, and it takes him into Camp Emerson, where he knows he’s been before. Judy tries to interview the Van Laar grandparents but they’re dismissive of her and then furious with her for mentioning Bear’s disappearance. In the woods, Tracy is in the same spot yelling that she’s lost every so often when she finally hears footsteps.
The police takes Louise and Annabel for questioning, and the officer, Denny Hayes, recognizes Louise since they’re both from the same, small nearby town of Shattuck. When Denny asks Louise if she was in the cabin, he notices the hesitation and tells Louise she should get a lawyer which she says she already has. Alice sits and thinks about how Barbara got in trouble this for sneaking a boy into her room at boarding school, so Peter decided to send her to a boarding school for kids with discipline problems this coming fall.
Chapters 27-32
August- Louise finds out that Annabel told the cops Louise was the one out drinking and smoking, and the cop shows her drugs they found in the cabin that animal says belong to Louise. Because his dad is a lawyer, Louise goes up to Self Reliance with Denny to ask John Paul for help, but CC at the house they find out John Paul and his car are gone. Since she’s not wearing her glasses, Tracy can’t recognize the silver hair stranger who stays thirty feet away, but silently leads her back into sight of the camp before disappearing back into the woods.
Louise is taken back to the state police office for questioning. Alice thinks she hears a girl cry out far away, but Peter tells her not to talk to anyone. Then, Peter instructs her to go back to bed because she’s too upset.
Part 4 Visitors
Chapters 33-37
1961- Carl wakes up to the doctor telling him he has an arrhythmia, but he waits to go to the hospital. His wife goes back to help searching while he rests, and she reports that they found a tiny wood carving along the path that Carl had done for Bear. Carls friends come over to warn him that the police are coming to his house because the carving and that Carl was the last person to see Bear.
1962- Alice gives birth to Barbara during a traumatic labor, but doesn’t feel a connection to this baby like Bear. In the night at home, Alice keeps hearing Bear call for her, so the family doctor prescribes sleeping pills. When the voice doesn’t stop, they send Alice to an inpatient hospital, but she still has nightmares.
Part 5 Found
Chapters 38-41
August- Judy is interviewing people from the house, and decides to put a BOLO out on John Paul’s car because he’s a person of interest. Tracy finally decides to tell Judy about Barbara’s boyfriend and leaving in the night. Tracy also mentions that Barbara was mad at her parents recently for painting her room.
Judy and Denny get a briefing from Captain LaRochelle, but then their shift ends. As they’re driving back, they hear over the radio that John Paul has been pulled over, and they head over. John Paul is drunk, and Denny finds a bloody camp uniform in his trunk.
Chapters 42-47
August- In the holding cell, Louise is told that John Paul has told the police she’s someone who used to sleep with. And Louise asked him to get rid of the bag of bloody clothes.
Winter 1973-When Louise makes a surprise visit to John Paul’s college house, he’s drunk at a party there, and they end up in an argument that ends with John Paul punching Louise a few times. With no where else to go, Louise tries to hide out at a cabin at Camp Emerson where TJ finds her and helps her recover. After TJ tells Louise about her cabin on a lake north she wants to leave to, Louise tries to come on to TJ, but TJ leaves the room after insisting Louise is only her employee.
John Paul shows up at Louise’s work to beg forgiveness, and ask her to marry him one day. While she’s thinking about it, Louise goes home to see her nine year old brother, Jesse, and finds him smoking weed. Their mother is passed out on something as usual, so Louise decides to stay with John Paul to get Jesse out of this house.
Part 6 Survival
Chapters 48-51
August 1975, Day Two- Back at the camp the next day, Judy and Hayes agree that they should think about connecting Bear’s case with Barbara’s, but Captain LaRochelle, who made his career on that case, forbids it. When Judy interviews the temporary cook, Mrs. Clute, she tells Judy that LaRochelle pinned Bear’s disappearance on her father, Carl Stoddard, because LaRochelle just wanted to solve the case. Alice thinks today she’ll be taken back to her house in Albany because her husband wants her out of the way.
July 1975- Tracy and Barbara are taken with their group for their Survival trip where they camp in the woods alone, even though a counselor is nearby for emergencies. Tracy learns from Barbara that Barbara struggles with impulse control, and Barbara still leaves at night to meet her boyfriend because she knows the woods so well. The second night, Barbara stabs her leg while skinning a squirrel for dinner (Tracy’s not sure if it’s an accident or not), and Barbara stays in from her boyfriend even though Barbara tells Tracy it won’t be okay.
Chapters 52-56
August 1975 Day Two- As she’s searching old farm building nearby, Judy thinks she footsteps, but when she returns with backup they only find squirrels. Searchers find beer bottles with John Paul’s fingerprints on them at the overlook cabin, so they’re all assuming he’s Barbara’s boyfriend. When they look into more, John Paul has been staying in the area the entire summer without Louise knowing it, and still says Louise gave him the bloody clothes with the help of Lee.
Chapters 57-63
August 1975 Day Three- Tracy remembers a week before disappearing, Barbara snuck into Self-Reliance, and came back to camp with a paper bag that she wouldn’t show Tracy. Unknown to her, a lady bails out Louise, but she’s required to stay at her mother’s address. When Denny drives her home, he asks if she knows where Lee has disappeared to, or if she knew he was incarcerated for statutory rape before.
A young camper, Christopher, comes to talk to Judy with his parents, and tells her that when he went on the survival trip with Barbara and Tracy, he couldn’t sleep. And at night he saw Barbara sneak out of her tent and sneak into TJs tent, the counselor assigned to their group. After the trip, Christopher saw Barbara sneak out of her cabin into TJ cabin at night, too.
Chapters 64-66
When Judy interviews TJ, TJ insists that she knows what people speculate about her, but she only sees Barbara as a little sister. TJ grew up babysitting Barbara, and has always wanted to help Barbara with her hard home life. Then, Judy runs into Barbara’s grandmother who tells Judy she should question Vic Hewitt, who’s supposed to be living with TJ, but isn’t in the cabin. Jacob sneaks into a house to make food, but is cornered by the police.
Part 7 Self-Reliance
Chapters 67-71
1961- When Alice goes looking for Bear, she goes into Peter’s bedroom to find him asleep in bed with Delphine, and they’re obviously used to this from their position. Alice drinks a lot after deciding not to tell anyone so her life doesn’t change, but she ends up passing out. She wakes up in a locked, unknown room until Peter’s father comes in.
August 1975 Day Three- Judy goes looking for signs of Vic Hewitt in TJs cabin after she remembered TJ saying her father retired from memory problems. In the Director Cabin, Judy finds his room with all his stuff, including his dentures and photos of kids at camp, but he’s not there.
August 1975 Day Four- after Judy updates Denny on Vic, Judy goes looking for both TJ and Vic, but only finds TJs new room in the staff quarters padlocked shut. Then, Judy gets called to interview Jacob Sluiter because he’ll only talk to a lady. Judy gets him to admit he was near Barbara’s house recently, but he still won’t confess to any crimes.
Chapters 72-76
Maryanne Stoddard shows up at Louise’s house, and tells her she paid Louise’s bail so they can’t frame her like they did to Carl. Jacob Sluiter agreed to show them where bear is if Judy goes with, and after a judge approves, Sluiter has them row to the other side of the lake.
Lee shows up at Louise’s house to tell her goodbye and that he saw Annabel messing around with John Paul. Lee also explains that he was arrested for his relationship with a sixteen year old when he was nineteen, but her rich father called the cops on them because he didn’t approve. He invites Louise to go to Colorado with him, but she declines.
Chapters 77-82
August 1975 Day Five- dental records confirm the skeleton they found buried across the lake was bear, and Judy explains that Sluiter says he didn’t kill him. Sluiter claims when he was on the run from police that summer, he was hiding in caves across the lake when he saw a local man carry the dead boy over and bury him. Judy and Denny seem to believe the story enough to look into it, and believe this local man may by Vic Hewitt.
Then, the police finish removing the pink paint from Barbara’s wall to find her original mural which includes Barbara’s initials next to John Paul’s.
Judy is staying the night at the motel owned by a local family, the Alcotts, who tell her the story of how Peter Van Laar I, Bear and Barbara’s great grandfather, adopted Vic and his twin brother Charlie. Peter II was similar age but jealous of the boys even though they stayed around. Judy finds out that Charlie used to live in an apartment above the slaughterhouse when he was alive.
Chapters 83-88
August 1975 Day Four- even though it’s late at night, Judy rushes back to the slaughter house to find the upper apartment padlock. She shoots off the lock, and finds Vic inside who thinks she’s here about bear. He says something about only trying to help.
1961- Peter II calls for Vicks help and tells him that Alice took bear out on a robot while she was drunk and they got caught in a storm. Alice made it back to shore, but Peter found bear drowned with his clothes, stuck on the boat. Peter couldn’t risk the scandal if the truth got out, so he asked Vic to bury Bear‘s body.
Vic only agrees because him and TJ inherit the camp when Peter dies, and if the Van Laars do lose their money, TJ won’t have a livelihood or future to live how she wants. Peter works on keeping Alice sedated and away from the other guest well Vic buries Bear. Peter III, Bear’s father, knows the truth, and Vic finds out TJ overheard as well.
Chapters 89-93
August 1975 Day Six- TJ and Vic both confessed to the lie so that Louise won’t be framed and Carl‘s name will be cleared. They still don’t know how it connects to Barbara though.
September 1975- Both Peter II and Peter III were charged with lying to the police and obstructing an investigation, but Alice won’t be charged because the statute of limitations is up. Annabel says she was with John Paul that night giving him an alibi for Barbara’s disappearance, but John Paul will be charged with aggravated assault by Louise and witnesses Judy found. Louise also confides in Judy about the cabin TJ told Louise about north of the camp.
Chapters 94-Epilogue
August 1975 Day One-Barbara sneaks out of her bunk and is almost late to meet TJ, but TJ insists they still have to go today while the party is going on at the main house. TJ drives Barbara to TJ’s family cabin on an island in a lake just north of the camp with all her supplies. Barbara thanks TJ for spending the nights over the summer teaching her to survive on her own at the cabin.
September 1975- Judy decided to check out the cabin without telling anyone else. On her off day, she drives to the lake, swims close to the island in the middle, and sees Barbara standing outside. Pretending to just be someone swimming, Judy waves and asks Barbara if Barbara if she wants Judy to leave. Barbara waves back, and nicely says yes.
Read My Full Review
Now you can check out my full book review. I have all my thoughts there and more recommendations if you liked this book!
