When someone goes missing, there is always a story. When that someone disappears under suspicious circumstances, and the man who goes looking for her also disappears, you know you’re in for a ride.
A History of Wild Places starts out following private investigator, Travis Wren, who despite his demons, agrees as a favor to a friend, to use his talents to find missing children’s author, Maggie St. James. On the verge of discovering what happened to her, he also disappears. Years later, residents of the mysterious town called Pastoral piece together the truth.
Shea Ernshaw uses multiple character point-of-view to it’s maximum potential. With a twist I didn’t see coming and the strange, cult-like town, this book reminded me of the movie “The Village.” And just like the movie, some people are willing to kill to keep the truth a secret.
What I Liked
This book drew me in from the very first page and kept me there until the end. The writing is clean, the characters unique and memorable, and I literally couldn’t put it down. If you love a bit of creepy suspense and love to see the truth come out, no matter what, this book was written for you.
For the absolutely mesmerizing story and a twist that made for an incredibly satisfying ending I couldn’t give it anything other than five stars.
Book Details
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Release Date: 7 December 2021
Book Blurb:
Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend.
Called Pastoral, this reclusive community was founded in the 1970s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore and soon after Travis stumbles upon it…he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.
Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis’s abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not when there’s a risk of bringing a disease—rot—into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn’t as safe as they believed—and that darkness takes many forms.
Hauntingly beautiful, hypnotic, and bewitching, A History of Wild Places is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind.