A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw
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I chose this book after reading the blurb for Book of the Month Club. I was intrigued. When I opened the first page, I was pretty much hooked and remained that way until I got to the last page. Riveting is a word I would use to describe this tale. Haunting is another. That it stays with you long after you are finished is pretty much a guarantee.
Basic summary without spoilers: Travis Wren, a man with an almost supernatural ability of finding people, has been hired to find children’s author Maggie St. James, who went missing five years earlier. Travis tracks her close to the long-forgotten Utopian community of Pastoral, and then shortly after goes missing himself. Years later, Theo, a Pastoral resident, and his wife Calla begin to find clues not only of Travis’s and Maggie’s existence, but their subsequent disappearances. The clues tug them to cross the borders out of Pastoral, which all community members are forbidden to do as they will catch the “rot” infecting the trees surrounding them and all life that they touch.
Writer Shea Ernshaw is a masterful storyteller, and with this tale, she delivers on all counts with a strong, suspenseful plot that kept me turning the pages long into the night. The story is told from the POV of three protagonists, and it’s impossible to not get emotionally invested in her characters. They are totally believable and I found myself seeing their world from their eyes.
Chilling, mysterious, at times poignant, and always suspenseful with an unexpected final twist makes this book a don’t-miss. I highly recommend this book!