Finished: These Silent Woods (Grant) For eight years a father and daughter have lived alone in a remote cabin in the Appalachian Mountains. Cooper takes his daughter there when she's just an infant after his wife dies and her parents, an influential judge and his wealthy wife, try to take Finch away from him by invoking the PTSD he has struggled with since ending his 4th tour in Afghanistan. Cooper realizes that his inlaws will win and he will lose his daughter, so he takes drastic, illegal measures which then requires him to hide away with Finch for as long as he can. The only person who knows where Cooper and Finch are is Cooper's best friend and Army mate, Jake, who owns the cabin, and whose life Cooper saved in Afghanistan. Jake comes once a year and delivers groceries and supplies so that Cooper and Finch don't have to go into town to the store and risk being recognized. In addition, a mysterious, crusty man, Scotland, who lives nearby in the wilderness also knows that Cooper and Finch are there. Scotland always shows up so quietly that Cooper never sees him coming, but Scotland lets Cooper know that he knows what he's running from with clippings from the newspaper. However, Scotland adores Finch and so would really do whatever he can to protect them both, not expose them. Finch is smart as a whip and reads all the books in the cabin. She's an excellent little outdoors-woman, and an passionate animal lover. She and Cooper also have a signal and a plan for hiding in case any strangers drive up to the cabin. When Jake fails to arrive promptly on December 14, his designated annual date to come, Cooper fears the worst...that Jake has finally succumbed to the horrific injuries he suffered in Afghanistan. When Jake's sister, Marie, arrives with instructions from Jake to please fill the supply list and take it to the cabin, Cooper's and Finch's fears are realized. They are devastated at the loss of their friend, and quickly grow attached to Marie, and she to them. When an actual tragedy occurs with a teenager from the town and her body is discovered in the woods too close to the cabin, everything turns upside down. Soon the authorities are scouring the woods to figure out what happened to her. The prose in the book is beautifully written as we learn more and more about each character the further the story goes. We flashback to Cooper's time in Afghanistan when Jake is nearly mortally wounded but Cooper saves his life. Cooper feels terribly guilty and when the PTSD sets in once he's back home and he draws a gun in a diner, when he thinks he sees to "bad guys" come in the door, the town who has hailed him as a hero since he's been home, is now afraid of him. When Cindy, the girl he feels is way above his station, actually loves him back and they begin to live together when she becomes pregnant and her aforementioned parents won't accept the relationship, Cooper is the happiest he's ever been. Tragically, when Finch is 4 months old, Cindy grabs his arm when he's driving one day so he'll avoid a deer that has run into the road, and the car rolls, killing Cindy. Marie, is a lonely soul who discovers that her husband of several years has cheated on her, so they are newly divorced when she meets Cooper and Finch. She's not quite ready for another relationship, but as things turn dire with the search for the town girl, she and Cooper bond even closer and do end up together. And, we find out that Scotland, who Cooper is suspicious of for the eight years he knows them, is such a loner because he lost his own wife and daughter in a car accident when he was driving. He makes a huge sacrifice at the end of the story so Cooper and Finch can be safely together without having to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives. I kept waiting for some huge revelation because the book was touted as a thriller, but what it really was was the story of four broken people and an amazing little girl, all trying to make the best of their lives given the hands they were dealt.