Book Review: Hard Truth by Nevada Barr

This was a great book. I am a huge fan of Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon books. Anna is a national park ranger and each book takes place in a national park. Hard Truth is set in Rocky Mountain National Park. It is the story of three young girls who go missing in the park. After a massive search turns up no clues to the girls disappearance the search is closed. A month later two traumatized girls turn up at the camp site of a parapalegic woman and her aunt. The girls are too traumatized to be able to help find the third missing girl. One of the girls form a connection to Heath Jarrod, the paraplegic woman, and looks to her as her saviour. Heath feels responsible to help the young girl that affectionetly calls limpet.

Anna has newly transfered to the park as a district ranger and gets involved in trying to find out any information from the girls. She discovers that the girls are from a religious polygomous sect and that there are things that are amiss at the compound they live in. The "parents" are of no help and even in the initial searches the parents chose not to help search but instead had prayer vigils for the girls. The more Anna discovers the more the questions about what happened grow. Anna and Heath discover horrors and terror in the form of commune leader and a serial killer that Anna has dealt with before.

This book is a full of suspense and pschological twists and turns. I recommend it to anyone who likes a good suspense thriller.

Review: A Place Called Here

A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern

Cecelia Ahern is an Irish author that writes truly wonderful novels. A Place Called Here is the story of Sandy Shortt, she has been obsessed with finding things since she was 10 years old and her childhood rival who lived across the street vanished without a trace. Sandy can't concentrate on anything else when something goes missing, she turns her entire home upside down looking for the item. Her parents help her search but they become more and more concerned and arrange for Sandy to begin seeing a councilor when she is a teenager. As Sandy gets older she continues to search for the missing. She joins the "Guard", (which appears to be the Irish police) and begins to work for the missing persons division. She continues to work for them for a few years and then opens her own missing persons agency. She is hired by Jack Ruttle to search for his missing younger brother. While searching for Jack's brother Sandy goes for a run in the forest and finds herself in a mystical land where anyone and anything that goes missing ends up. She finds people that she has searched for in the the past, items that she has lost and a society that has developed by those who also ended up in the place called Here.

I really enjoyed this book. Ahern blends the mystical magic so seamlessly into the story that it does not feel like a fairy tale even though after finishing the story, I felt that I had read a fairy tale. The characters are endearing and linger in your thoughts afterwards. I rate this story a solid 4 stars out of 5.