48 pages • 1 hour read
Michael FinkelThe Stranger in the Woods
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
On April 4, 2013, Christopher Knight makes his way from his forest camp to what would be his final raid on the residents of North Pond in Kennebec County, Maine. While navigation would be cumbersome for anyone else, he travels “with precision and grace, twisting, striding, hardly a twig broken” (3). He avoids crossing the frozen-but-thawing pond in favor of a path around the lake with tree roots he could use to mask footprints. He carries a backpack and a canvas bag with flashlights, flathead screwdrivers, and a Leatherman multi-tool. He is “deeply, almost dangerously hungry” and low on supplies after the long winter (6).
Knight arrives at his target: The Pine Tree special needs summer camp. He easily avoids the motion-activated camera system the camp installed specifically for him and picks up a hidden set of keys from a rock. He steals 10 rolls of Smarties for food and a cheap analog watch from an unlocked pickup truck in case his other watches break. Knight pries open the back door to the dining hall and enters the kitchen, where he takes coffee, pasta, and snacks before using the keys on the freezer and helping himself to the meat and cheese inside.
Chapters 2-3 Summaries
Knight’s break in triggers an advanced sensor system installed by Sergeant Terry Hughes, a former United States Marine who has worked his current job as a game warden for 18 years. After numerous operations involving four separate agencies failed to catch the hermit, Hughes acquired the Homeland Security technology and installed it in his house with supplies ready to grab at a moment’s notice. He alerts Trooper Diane Vance, whom he has worked with for two decades.
Aside from nearly sleeping through the alert and forgetting his duty belt, Hughes feels he achieved the rare “perfect law enforcement moment” (9). Glock and Maglite in hand, Hughes catches Knight in the act and makes him go down to the ground.
Vance travels to the Pine Tree camp knowing little of what awaits her there. She helps Hughes cuff the hermit and check for weapons. Knight cooperates but doesn’t answer questions and has a disturbingly calm demeanor. Hughes expected Knight to be a grizzled military vet, but he is clean, freshly shaven, and wearing modern clothing. The only details that betray his time in the forest are his chunky, outdated eyeglasses and the moldy money in his wallet.
Camp officials arrive to the scene and recognize the watches that Knight stole. Neither were valuable, but one was a memento from a grandfather, and the other was a 25th anniversary gift from work. Vance recognizes that the commotion agitates Knight. She requests to be alone with him and then removes his handcuffs and offers him a drink before reading his Miranda rights. Knight gives her his name.
Chapter 4 Summary
Knight resolves to tell the truth during his interrogation. He remembers his date of birth but needs help determining his current age of 47. Knight doesn’t know the year that he entered the woods other than it was the same time as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. He lives inside a small nylon tent and doesn’t not know the names of the locations around him, but he can “recite the name of every species of tree in his patch of forest” (17).
Some responses baffle Vance. Knight claims he never lit any fires to avoid detection and stockpiled enough food in the autumn to avoid leaving camp for up to six months; that seems impossible with Maine’s intensely cold winters. He commits 40 burglaries annually, focusing on seasonal homes with no residents in them. That would be 1,080 acts over 27 years. He never goes to the doctor. Yet the only thing Knight is hesitant about is his family: He would be ashamed if his parents learned he was a thief.
Vance learns that Knight has no criminal record, warrants, or missing persons reports. The facilities director brings in a high-school yearbook from 1984 with a picture of a healthy, strong Knight standing next to a tree with a smirk.
Chapter 5-6 Summaries
The burglaries were an enigma to residents of North Pond, who called him “Mountain Man” or “Hungry Man.” Often, the stolen items were too insignificant to report: Clothing, tools, meat, propane, reading materials, and batteries. Then, there were major thefts, such as a mattress that the thief took by slipping through the kitchen window, opening a padlocked door by undoing the hinges from the inside, and then putting everything back together when he left. Many homes suffered multiple robberies, with the Pine Tree camp being “the thief’s own personal Costco” (24).
The thief rarely damaged the property and avoided valuables, even removing a pair of passports from a bag he stole. Some figured out his personal tastes and tried to leave bags of goods or shopping lists by the door. One family finally captured an image of him using a motion detection camera, revealing an average man. The crimes intensified over time.
The hermit’s arrest creates national headlines and inspires songs, paintings, and attempts to pay for his bail. The New York Times compare Knight to Boo Radley of To Kill a Mockingbird, and media outlets try to find out what secrets he learned in the forest.
Authorities send Knight to Kennebec County Correctional Facility in Augusta, where he sleeps indoors for the first time in decades. He refuses to accept any gifts or interview requests, compounding the mystery. District Attorney Maeghan Maloney notes that despite wishing for anonymity, he is now “the most famous person in the state of Maine” (31).
Chapters 1-6 Analysis
While Finkel writes most of The Stranger in the Woods from a first-person perspective, he opens the book in narrative third person from the perspectives of the titular stranger, Knight, and the two people who arrest him, Hughes and Vance. Finkel doesn’t refer to Knight by name until the end of Chapter 3, usually calling him “the hermit.” He goes back to this practice in Chapter 5 when describing how families experienced the burglaries over 27 years. This helps the reader understand the mythology surrounding the North Pond hermit: Law enforcement didn’t know whether the hermit would try to fight back, and residents came up with a range for explanations of who he was. The thefts could have been by one person, a veteran or even a serial killer. It could be a gang initiation, or maybe the original thief died, and current crimes were copycat acts.
The depiction of Knight’s final trip highlights the modus operandi that Finkel expands upon in later chapters, including his use of multiple paths, intentional ignorance of location names, storage of stolen keys near the property, fondness for sweets, and need to eat after a punishing winter hibernation. Once captured, Knight’s initial interrogation showcases his severe self-consciousness, such as when he immediately regrets mentioning the Chernobyl disaster, as it made him feel like a “lunatic environmental activist” (17). However, his honesty and the way he needs help answering basic questions also show why Hughes and Vance could believe an otherwise unbelievable story.
Chapter 6 covers the initial media cycle that came from the arrest: A whirlwind of hype where the public used the real-life man of the woods to superimpose their own thoughts and desires. While the case is easy to look up now, and Knight’s appearance is so ordinary that residents call him “Mr. Nobody” (28), the narrative approach recaptures the allure that drove Finkel to dig deeper into the story. The reader knows the basic facts by the end of Chapter 6, and the following chapters will reveal the reasons behind them.
