Did you know that each year in the United States about 600,000 people go missing?  Most vanish in populated places.  The majority of them are found alive and in a short amount of time.  While these statistics are comforting in a way, the one Jon Billman is concerned about is this—around 1600 people are currently missing from North America's public lands (including national parks, national forests, and BLM land).  And this, Billman says, is likely a vast understatement.  For various reasons, hundreds go missing on federal land every year; many are never found.  

In The Cold Vanish, the writer uses the story of Jacob Gray (link contains spoilers)—a 22-year-old from California who disappeared in Washington's Olympic Peninsula while on a solo bicycling trip—as a springboard to explore these disappearing acts.  Who is most likely to vanish on public land?  Why?  And what is being done to locate the missing?  Billman discusses obstacles to finding people in the wild (vast acreage, inclement weather, difficult terrain, bureaucratic red tape, etc.) as well as the lengths that volunteers (including a group of dedicated Bigfoot hunters) have gone to to find missing hikers, bicyclers, and explorers.  Since so many of the circumstances surrounding these disappearances are strange, even inexplicable, Billman also talks about the more out-there explanations embraced by some: aliens, Sasquatch, and other otherworldly explanations.  The levity of this discussion is over-balanced, however, by those about how a missing persons investigation affects the family and friends who are left behind with no answers and no closure.  It's heartbreaking. 

Although there has apparently been a bit of a hubbub over Billman's portrayal of Jacob Gray, including some "facts" of the case that Billman may have gotten wrong, I found his coverage of Jacob's case to be both sensitive and absorbing.  On the whole, The Cold Vanish is very informative, compulsively readable, and highly compelling.  Also, sad and disturbing.  Although I read the book quickly, what I learned has stayed with me.  Haunted me.  My biggest takeaway: always maintain a healthy respect for Mother Nature, which will kill you just as soon as cradle you.  When exploring, stay on established paths, don't venture out alone, take a cell phone, and always—always—be prepared with emergency supplies.  Not doing any one of these, as Billman so clearly points out, can be deadly.

*Thanks to Lark for recommending this book to me.  You can see her excellent review of The Cold Vanish here.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of books by Jon Krakauer, especially Into the Wild, as well as Carried by Michelle Schmidt and Angie Taylor)

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

When a woman goes missing in the Colorado wilderness, Sheriff Colm McCormac calls on skilled and capable Pru Hathaway to find her.  An archaeological law enforcement ranger for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the 42-year-old is also the handler of the only search and rescue dog in the county.  If anyone can find the missing hunter, it's Pru and her dog.  Despite few clues and worsening weather, Pru is determined to find the woman, no matter what the risk.  The more she learns about Amy Raye Latour, a 32-year-old wife and mother, the more determined—even obsessed—Pru becomes with solving the mystery of Amy Raye's disappearance.  Can she find the woman before exposure kills her?  Or is she already on the hunt for a corpse?

I've mentioned before that I'm a fan of exciting search and rescue stories set in remote places where danger lurks around every corner.  That explains why I picked up Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets.  Did it satisfy my craving for riveting action/adventure reading?  Kind of.  The novel definitely tells a compelling story.  Problem is, the plot gets bogged down by details.  Lots and lots and lots of details.  If you're looking for adrenaline-fueled action with shocking twists and turns to keep you burning through pages, you're not going to find them here.  This is a straight-up survival/ search-and-rescue story, told from the alternating perspectives of the woman doing the surviving and the one doing the searching.  As we get to know both, their secrets and backstories are slowly revealed, making the book more character- than plot-driven.  Except for Amy Raye, who's kind of hard to take, the cast is likable and interesting.  The prose is capable, just way too detailed for me.  For all these reasons, I liked Breaking Wild but didn't end up loving it.  Looking back, I had the same complaints with The Last Woman in the Forest, so maybe Les Becquets just isn't for me.

(Readalikes:  The Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets and The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a couple F-bombs, plus milder expletives), sexual content, violence, blood/gore, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of Breaking Wild from Barnes & Noble with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Kira Bennett knows what it means to be a kid lost and alone in the wilderness.  The memories of her earliest years as a feral child doing whatever it takes to survive still haunt her, even though she was rescued at five years old and adopted into a loving family.  Now 17, Kira finds purpose in helping her adoptive mother train Search and Rescue dogs, so no one—especially a child—has to live the way she once did.

When Bales Bennett, Kira's estranged birth father, comes to her adoptive family asking for help locating a child who's gone missing from a campsite, Kira wants in.  Along with her adoptive mother, foster brother, and two of their friends (including the hot, but possibly dangerous Gabriel Cortez), the group of handlers head to Sierra Glades National Park with one goal: find 9-year-old Bella Anthony.  As the search grows increasingly dangerous, Kira is pummelled with crushing memories of her own past, especially as secrets about her birth parents and her new family start coming to light.  Can Kira clear her head enough to find little Bella?  What truths will she learn about herself along the way?

Books about search and rescue operations in remote wilderness settings always intrigue me, so naturally, I was drawn to The Lovely and the Lost, a YA novel by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.  It's peopled with characters who are likable, but not original or really memorable.  The teens don't speak like real kids, nor are they really treated as such since they have little adult supervision throughout the novel and are basically left to do whatever they please.  This, as well as the fact that the teens are even involved in a search and rescue operation of this kind, makes the plot seem far-fetched.  The purpose behind Bella's disappearance also seems illogical.  The story is fast-paced, though, as well as compelling, even if it doesn't always make sense.  I appreciate that The Lovely and the Lost is a clean YA novel with no annoying insta-love, but for me, there are some big holes in its construction.  Add to that a weird, unsatisfying ending and, meh, this read just didn't do it for me.  It was propelling enough that I finished the book, but I certainly didn't love it.  Bummer.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah and Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for violence, scenes of peril, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of The Lovely and the Lost at Barnes & Noble with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.