The Body in the Woods by April Henry (review)

Alexis, Nick, and Ruby each have different reasons for volunteering with Portland Search and Rescue. Alexis’ mother’s mental illness has sensitized Alexis to the needs of people who periodically go missing, and she also needs an extracurricular for her college applications if she hopes to get a scholarship. Nick is trying to live up to the reputation of his heroic father who was killed in Iraq, a task made difficult by his own disappointing physique and his even more disappointing tendency to panic in the face of danger. Ruby is socially awkward to a degree painfully matched by her weird obsessions. When the three are called to their first real SAR, seeking an autistic man who wandered into the woods and is likely hiding rather than lost, they surprise everyone by finding a dead body instead. Ruby springs into action in her CSI persona, quickly assessing that the girl was strangled. Forbidden by her parents from pursuing the case, she does anyway, and soon she, Nick, and Alexis are tracking down their own leads. Characterization in this first title in a proposed series is not shallow so much as obvious; each teen is who he or she needs to be to move the mystery along, chase down red herrings, and eventually crack the case when the police fail. Alexis engages in a side plot of pretending to be homeless in order to find her mother, who has disappeared; this experience and Ruby’s obsessive knowledge of police procedure enable the integration of SAR protocols into the narrative without too much awkwardness. Short chapters, quick pacing, an easy-to-follow mystery, and a smidge of real danger make this a likely choice for TV crime drama fans.