A history of wild places A novel

Review by Booklist Review

YA author Ernshaw's adult-mystery debut concerns a missing children's author. Travis Wren, who has a most unusual talent for tracking people, is hired by the parents of Maggie St. James, who disappeared in the wilderness five years earlier. His search takes him to a hidden commune called Pastoral, but then he also disappears. Years later, Theo, a Pastoral member, discovers Travis' abandoned truck beyond the border of the property and uncovers items that lead him to question the idyllic life, "paralyzed in time," he has built with his wife and her sister. When one of Maggie's books is unearthed, it proves to be "grisly and sinister," as do the new directives of their charismatic leader, who refuses to let anyone leave and executes those who try. A richly embroidered tapestry deepens in hues as the story turns darker. Readers will sink into this one, and although they might question details of the resolution, they will be moved by the novel's power.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

YA author Ernshaw (Winterwood) makes her adult debut with a lurid, fast-paced story of a reclusive commune. Travis Wren, a private investigator with psychic abilities, is hired by the parents of Maggie St. James to find her, five years after her disappearance at age 26. He follows her trail to Pastoral, an isolated community founded a generation earlier by hippies in Northern California's Three River Mountains. Ernshaw then switches to life inside Pastoral, with no sign of Travis or Maggie, and where Theo, longing to leave and doubting the warnings from the new controlling leader, Levi, of a fatal disease beyond their village, repeatedly risks venturing past the boundary and finds himself unharmed, but doesn't tell his wife, Calla, about these illicit expeditions. Calla's younger blind sister, Bee, is carrying Levi's baby and is shattered when Levi refuses to publicly acknowledge her pregnancy. When another woman's baby is born in need of medical attention, Levi cruelly punishes the father for attempting to seek outside help. Meanwhile, Theo and Calla discover some items belonging to Travis and Maggie that suggest they were in Pastoral. As the mysteries deepen, Calla, Theo, and Bee piece together the shocking truth about the missing characters. When it's revealed, it strains credulity, and the prose is often simplistic, but the twisty plot brims with tension. There's plenty of fodder here for a miniseries. Agent: Jessica Regel, Foundry Literary + Media. (Dec.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Famed for his ability to locate people who have vanished, Travis Wren traces missing children's author Maggie St. James to Pastoral, a community so secluded that people think it no longer exists. He promptly vanishes himself, his abandoned truck found years later by a member of the community, and the community's corrosive secrets start emerging. From the author of the New York Times best-selling The Wicked Deep; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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