I met T. M. Williams during a local author booksale; she signed this book for me and explained it was inspired after her learning about how many people go missing everywhere in national parks with no explanation and no clues. She was a serious and earnest woman, and I was intrigued to see what she would do with such a unique story.

The subject matter itself is fascinating. A journalist is instructed by his boss to find a link between two seemingly unrelated missing child cases (this hint is unfortunately never explained) and finds himself being tailed by the Feds as he discovers more and more cases and befriends a Sheriff who wants answers just as badly. The mystery paces itself well and you have no idea where the story might go -- what could the explanation possibly be for all of these disappearances?

Unfortunately, the unbelievably frequent spelling and grammatical errors make this book difficult to read. I can forgive a few typos from a small local publisher, but the misuse of bazaar for bizarre twice in one book is unacceptable (and this was just one of many jaw-dropping mistakes). The timing was also an issue; the journalist meets the Sheriff and then the next thing you know the Sheriff is inviting him onto a case and a throwaway line mentions they have been working together for months. What happened in all of that time? The characters themselves are also poorly fleshed out. Just when you think you have a handle on someone, they say or do something completely inconsistent with a previous action.

Spoiler

It was also jarring when Franco disappears after having a breakthough, the contents of which are never explained, nor is the phone call he has moments before his disapperance. What did Maria tell him? Why don't we know? The Sheriff to this point seemed like a minor character, and to have him take over the narrative and end the entire story with Charles felt very disjointed. If it had been spread between the different points of view all along it would have been interesting, but the way it was handled felt juvenile.

I would recommend it to people looking for a very unique story based on a terrifically creepy true phenomenon. Just brace yourself for some terrible typos.