The Body in the Woods: A Point Last Seen Mystery

The Body in the Woods (2015) the first of the A Point Last Seen Mystery series written by April Henry, is a young adult novel with Common Core connections. The novel features an unlikely trio of teen rescue team volunteers putting themselves in danger to stop a serial killer. The story includes themes of bias, race, privilege, and mental health. This summary guide refers to the Kindle Edition.

Content warning: This guide depicts fictional violence against people from marginalized groups.

Plot Summary

Alexis Frost, Ruby McClure, and Nick Walker are the least experienced volunteers in the Portland Search and Rescue team. Their first search together is for Bobby Balog, a man with autism spectrum disorder, who is hiding in Forest Park. As the inexperienced volunteers work, Alexis stumbles upon the body of Miranda Wyatt. They soon learn that Miranda isn’t the first unhoused girl to have been killed.

Caleb Becker is an older man whose love of birding turns into an obsession with collecting feathers and eventually the hair of teenage girls he’s murdered.

The three teenagers have complex home lives. Alexis grapples with the stress of having a bipolar mother, Ruby has strict parents who are concerned about her obsession with dark and taboo topics such as death, and Nick deals with the grief of losing his father in the Iraq War.