The Body in the Woods Review

The Body in the Woods, by Joshua Burleson, follows married couple William and Diana after William hits a man while driving home one night. Rather than call the police, Diana convinces William to bury the body in the woods, due to his slight intoxication. What follows is how the couple deals with the aftermath, grappling with guilt while also struggling to act as if everything is normal.

The book is split into two parts, one focusing on William and the other focusing on Diana - both told from that character's perspective. Without hesitation, I will say that William's half is much stronger. William, as the one driving, feels the bulk of the guilt for what has happened, and Burleson does a great job of writing how William's culpability slowly but steadily becomes too heavy a weight for him to bear. There's some structural issues that hurt the Diana half, but William's half is solid from beginning to end.

Diana's half, while interesting, suffers a bit from Burleson needing to expand the story outside of Diana's perspective. So, rather than the entire half being told from her point of view, the reader is forced to essentially step outside of her story to see what is happening with the investigation into the dead man's disappearance. While necessary, it is somewhat jarring to make a shift from first-person to a more omnipotent narration so far into the novel.

A strong case could be made for Burleson to approach the story with a triptych structure, rather than just a split narrative: Keep Diana's section completely focused on her reactions, then have a third part focusing on the detective's. This would not only give the two of them fuller characterizations (having to jump back and forth between the two shortchanges both of them) but would also allow Burleson to approach scenes where the characters interact from multiple angles, which would further enrich the story.

The detective character, Charon, is the only part of the novel not told in the first person - another reason I think three divisions would work better than just 2 - and these parts feel almost awkward compared to the others. The character isn't a bad one, but losing that inner perspective while also having him drive the bulk of the action in the final parts of the book doesn't quite work, structurally.

Another reason I would push for Charon to have his own section is that several breadcrumbs for a future sequel feel forced in rather than a natural part of the story, and the dynamic he has with his partner feels underdeveloped, especially with some of the leaps the story takes in the last third. There is also something approaching a romantic plot introduced for this character, but it feels particularly extraneous given how little the detective is explored during the latter half.

Even with those criticisms, this is a solid debut from Burleson. I'm willing to read whatever novel he self-publishes next. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to support independent authors.

2.5 out of 5