By Sophie Burkel
Staff Writer

In this mystery book by Lucy Christopher, The Killing Woods, Emily shepherd’s father suffers from PTSD from the war. One night her father returns from the woods surrounding their house with a dead teenage girl, Ashlee Parker, but no recognition of how she ended up that way. Emily doesn’t believe that her father could or would kill someone, while the rest of the town is sure that he did. Damon Hilary, Ashlee’s boyfriend, also has no recognition of what happened the night his beloved girlfriend passed away. Throughout the story Emily and Damon both try to figure out what happened the night Ashlee died, Emily to clear her father’s name, and Damon to clear his conscious.

Throughout the book the point of view switches between Emily and Damon while they both attempt to figure out the events of that night. Lucy Christopher very creatively interpreted this into the story so that it actually helped move the plot along, and when Damon and Emily interact it’s in the point of view of the person who has the most information about that night at the time. ‘OrliTheBookworm’ from thegaurdian.com says “…follows a journey of self-discovery, of guilt and of self-doubt, which is something I haven’t seen explored in a book before”