Book Summary and Reviews of In the Woods They Wait by Carrie Lee South

In the Woods They Wait by Carrie Lee South

In the Woods They Wait

A Novel

by Carrie Lee South

  • Publishes:
  • Sep 22, 2026, 304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A park ranger in Devil's Den becomes obsessed with the case of a missing child―a case that mirrors the disappearance of her own brother, whom she lost in the woods many years ago―and the possibility that both were taken by something vicious and unnatural that lives deep in the Ozarks.

Fifteen years ago, Audrey Figg's little brother, Benny, vanished on a family vacation to Devil's Den state park, a day that split her life in two. Now, Audrey is a park ranger in the very same woods with expertise in wilderness search and rescue. Audrey has found a rhythm to her days: training new rangers, tending to injured hikers, protecting the backcountry, and still, searching.

When a little girl, Ivy, suddenly goes missing on the trails, Audrey can't help but notice the similarities to her own brother's case. As Audrey widens the scope of her search, she begins to believe Ivy wasn't merely lost; it looks like she was taken by something―and maybe Benny was too. Yet the closer Audrey comes to answers, the more old memories push to the surface. Audrey is haunted not only by her brother's loss, but a terrible secret from that day. A secret she has never shared with anyone.

Utterly absorbing and disquieting, In the Woods They Wait is an enthralling page-turner, one that asks how far you would go for a sense of closure―and what would you be willing to face to get it.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Carrie Lee South's impressive debut is as much about navigating the labyrinths of guilt and hope as it is surviving the Ozark wilderness... fleet-footed, compulsively readable, haunting, and monstrously satisfying." ―Nat Cassidy, author of When the Wolf Comes Home

"A fast-paced, thrillingly dark journey into the Ozark wilderness. Beautifully written, with a great cast of characters and a terrifying secret at its heart, Carrie Lee South's debut novel is a stunner." ―Elizabeth Hand, author of A Haunting on the Hill

This information about In the Woods They Wait was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Carrie Lee South

Carrie Lee South earned her MFA at the Arkansas Writers Workshop where she served as the fiction editor for the literary magazine Arkana. She's currently the fiction editor at StoryBottle Co. Her work has appeared in Waxwing, F(r)iction, Iron Horse Literary Review, Tales to Terrify, and elsewhere. When she's not reading and writing, she's spending time with birds—the ones outside and the four parrots that live in her house.

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