Andrea Lankford’s account of the search for three hikers missing from the Pacific Crest Trail fascinated me. I learned that hikers often take on that trail not only for the physical challenge but also as a personal quest to find new meaning in life or a new way of living.
With this mindset, missing PCT hikers may have not only suffered accidents or attacks but may have also gone off the trail with new friends or even joined a cult-like organization that runs inviting rest stops along the southern part of the trail. The searchers gave an astounding amount of their time, money, and even their health in the quest to find the missing.
This book was especially fascinating as I am an avid hiker, and I frequently see notifications of missing hikers on trails. I am also a retired private investigator who has searched for missing people, and I’m well aware of how difficult that can be, especially when there is no paper trail to follow. As a mystery writer, I prefer writing about missing people vs dead people, because there’s at least the hope of a happy ending.
** AN AMAZON "BEST BOOKS OF THE MONTH" FOR AUGUST 2023 (Biographies & Memoirs) **
From an award-winning former law enforcement park ranger and investigator, this female-driven true crime adventure follows the author’s quest to find missing hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail by pairing up with an eclectic group of unlikely allies.
As a park ranger with the National Park Service's law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes across America, from Yosemite to the Grand Canyon. But though she…
Reading this book was a departure for me in that it deals with the “influencer” phenomenon on the internet, and I am not typically interested in social media. So, for me, the story was a bit like a visit to another planet, and I do like to be immersed in other cultures in books.
This account of a search for a 13-year-old missing media “star” is a great suspenseful read that kept me glued to the pages. The story is told from multiple points of view, and every member of the star’s family is hiding some dark secret, and even the investigator is tangled in the messy drama due to her past with the star’s domineering mother.
This is a fascinating psychological suspense story.
The disappearance of a young internet celebrity ignites a firestorm of speculation on social media, and to find her a detective will have to extinguish the blaze.
Chloe Cates is missing. The 13-year-old star of the hit web series, “CC and Me,” has disappeared, and nobody knows where she’s gone ― least of all ruthless momager Jennifer Scarborough, who has spent much of her daughter’s young life crafting a child celebrity persona that is finally beginning to pay off. And in Chloe’s absence, the faux-fairytale world that supported that persona begins to fracture, revealing secrets capable of reducing the highly-dysfunctional…
I am from rural Kansas, and I find that most rural areas are overlooked in mysteries. So it was with great pleasure that I discovered Shannon Baker’s Kate Fox series, set in the Nebraska Sandhills.
These books introduced me to this fascinating area of the Midwest with intriguing descriptions of landscapes and weather patterns, and reminded me of the close-knit everyday life of ranchers and surrounding communities in small towns.
When everyone knows everyone else, few are neutral about their neighbors. Every individual has an opinion, a prejudice, and sometimes a hidden agenda. Kate Fox is the new sheriff in the county and needs to deal with it all with all eyes focused upon her.
Sometimes, even the best-kept secrets can’t stay hidden forever.
"Bitter Rain seeps into your bones and stays with you, its characters haunting your thoughts long after the rain stops and the sun breaks through the clouds.” —Colorado Book Review
Sheriff Kate Fox is still settling into her new role when Deputy Kyle Red Owl’s sister, Shelly, vanishes from the nearby Lakota reservation. Convinced it’s an “Indian issue,” neighboring sheriffs are reluctant to get involved. Tempers flare—and Kate knows things are bound to get even more heated.
But when Kate and Kyle start to gather evidence, they realize the case isn’t…
Nature lovers Kyla Quintana-Johnson and her mother, Kim Quintana, have been brutally murdered on a popular trail in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, and grief weighs heavily on Summer "Sam" Westin.
Kim and Kyla ran Washington Wilderness Quest, an outdoor therapy school for troubled teens. When Kim’s husband and Kyla’s father begs Sam to take Kyla’s place as field guide on the last expedition of the year, she hesitates. Troy reminds her that the school was Kim and Kyla's dream. How can she say no?
With no witnesses and few clues, the authorities seem clueless about how to investigate a double homicide in a wild area. As Sam struggles to guide her group of challenging teens through the backcountry, she begins to see signs that her friends’ killer may now be stalking her.
