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.

Alexis and teenage volunteer trauma specialist Bran Dawson grow close as the team celebrates the rescue of a lost hiker that gets written up in the newspaper. However, Ruby’s parents forbid her to continue with SAR after they find out about Miranda, taking away her car and phone privileges.

While the police follow several false leads, more girls fall victim to Becker’s life list, such as Tiffany Yee, another unhoused girl. Tiffany was friends with Raina, another unhoused girl that Alexis met in a shelter while looking for her missing mother.

At Chapman Elementary, thousands of swifts soar through the air in a spectacular event. Becker appears in the crowd and gives Ruby hot cocoa laced with GHB. As Ruby becomes increasingly dizzy, Becker suggests they look for the northern spotted owl at Forest Park since it’s just down the block. Ruby notices the footprints Becker is leaving in the mud as the same footprint she saw next to the body of Miranda. She panics and tries to get away from Becker, but he pulls a knife.

Nick and Alexis follow Becker and Ruby into Forest Park. While Becker uses his binoculars to strangle Ruby, Nick throws a large rock but misses. The groups fights, knocking Becker out just before the police arrive.

After recovering from their injuries, Nick, Ruby, and Alexis are determined to go to SAR class. Ruby takes them to dinner at McDonald’s where they bond over their shared experiences and value one another for being different.

When Alexis gets home, her has returned home safe. Alexis meets up with Bran at the café, he tells her she’s a hero and that he wants to be more than friends if she’s okay with it. Alexis kisses him as her answer.