When a desperate mother calls Denton police department to report her children missing, Detective Josie Quinn races to investigate. Sixteen-year-old Kayleigh and her little sister Savannah went for a walk in the woods but never came home. They are good girls and know not to go far, say their frantic parents. Kayleigh always looks after Savannah and brings her home safely. Until now…

Even as she vows to bring the sisters home safely, Josie’s blood runs cold: because they are not the only missing children. Rumors are spreading about the legend of “The Woodsman”: when pairs of children go into the woods, The Woodsman takes one of them and only one comes out alive. With local teenagers daring each other to walk into the woods at night in pairs, Josie knows that nobody is safe from the hysteria sweeping Denton. Little Savannah Patchett is soon mercifully found alive, alone and terrified, but she tells Josie “The Woodsman has taken my sister”.

All Josie’s leads seem to reach dead ends: her team traces Kayleigh’s scent to a dank, dark cabin in the woods, but the owner has an alibi and there is no evidence that Kayleigh has been inside. When Josie persuades Kayleigh’s classmates to talk, she learns that Kayleigh herself had a secret boyfriend whose identity is a mystery. Josie is desperate to track him down and to work out if he could hold the key to solving the case.

Then Josie’s worst fears come true: another pair goes missing and one of them is found dead soon after. Another teenage girl, lying straight and still, a halo of blood surrounding her beautiful blonde hair.

Josie knows that the legend of The Woodsman is nothing more than a story, but the truth is far more horrifying… With Kayleigh still out there somewhere and the TV news filled with stories of a serial killer at large, how far will Josie have to go to find the killer before more innocent lives are lost?

312 pages / 57 chapters / 4 hour read

I failed spectacularly with my 2024 reading goal because I put too much pressure on myself and life took me in chaotic circles. This year (2025) I want to enjoy reading without any goal or challenges.

I’ve come back to the Josie Quinn series by Lisa Regan. I was lucky enough to be gifted both books 19 and 20 for Christmas, so starting the new year with book 18 was a no brainer.

I love the world of Josie Quinn. Over the years it has become a much loved escape and I feel like I’ve grown with the characters. This book I feel embodies a new turning point in the series because it brings into focus something that for a long time didn’t seem like a possibility for Josie. But the series has shown how resilient and strong she is and she has evolved and matured to the point where this can be a possibility for the character.

The team is still mourning but it is lessening. Honestly, it’s rewarding to see the grief last because it preserves the passing of the character and proves that they meant something. It is also more realistic to have grief that dosen’t disappear at the turn of a page.

This book, or rather the plot, brings back into focus some past trauma of Josie’s and I think she’s surprised by it. I’m not sure she expected to be flung back to that moment. This book deals with missing children and the scary tale of the ‘woodsman’. All myths, legends, folklore, etc. have some element of truth about them and that is played upon quite well here. The concept of ‘2 go in but 1 comes out’ is not new. Especially in the world of horror or scary films but this is a book and it managed to turn the idea into something that was both captivating and exciting to read.

The killer POV chapters were short paragraphs that left me with so many questions and further lent into the ‘woodsman’ mystery.

Let’s talk killer. I had no idea – complete surprise. But when I think about it, it was crafted so well I’m not sure I’d ever have come to the correct conclusion. It makes snese to me now, having finished the book and there was definitely a lot of ‘cautionary tale’ vibes.

We all have the ability to be bad, right? It’s fun to lose myself in a crime book but we all know the world has some seriously fucked up people in it. You could aruge that this killer makes you more aware about the psychology involved in what moulds a person to such henous crimes.

I’m a big fan of psychology and what makes our brains tick, so I’m always interested in the underated, unexpected, seemingly ‘normal’ killers.

I think trauma is a powerful motivator. We all experience trauma differently. This killers trauma led them down a very dark path but as obvious as the behaviour was to the reader, to the characters involved, it was drastically invisible. I carry trauma about birthday parties. If someone sings happy birthday to me, I will have a panic attack. I am a grown adult and I will still have the same reaction as I did as a child. I hate the thought of the song and avoid it at all costs but it hasn’t imbuned my life with rage and misery. (I realise there are far worse traumas than this example). I still carry it with me but I’m not beholden to it.

The killer here is tightly wrapped in the trauma and doesn’t really allow for an alternate narrative to be introduced. It’s the conviction that makes them so interesting.

The themes in this book did make me think of the wider world and how many actions – consciously or unconsiously – have the power to impact those around us both positively and negatively.

While Josie and the team were on a positive tragectory of solving the crimes, the killer was on a negative tragectory of fame and noteriety, but at the end of the day, the lasting message is of those left at the end who have to pick up the pieces and start anew.