On a business retreat in the wilderness, five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start down a trial. By the time they reach the other side, only four women remain. Just what happened on this hike that was supposed to teach team building and resilience? Did one woman wander off by herself or did something more sinister happen between this group? Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a sharpened interest in the case, since Alice, the missing woman, happens to be the whistleblower in his latest case. However, when he starts to talk to the four remaining women, he discovers that instead of a hike that encouraged teamwork, there was suspicion, disintegrating trust and violence among them. Just where is Alice Russell? And will she be alive when she's found?
Told with a keen sense of crafting a setting that is a character unto itself, combined with a steadily increasing pace and suspenseful tone, this book captures both the panic felt by the women on the hike, as well as the increasing suspicion and dread that follows the investigation into Alice's disappearance. Immersive to the point where you close the book and blink, surprised to find that you're not in the Giralang Ranges.
I have not read the first Aaron Falk book, but will remedy that soon. I enjoyed this one and would now like to go back and learn about his character. Despite the fact that this is the second book, I never got a sense that I had no idea who this guy was, or that I needed a lot of background on him. Instead, the story about the women and the suspense about what happened to Alice was what really kept me reading.
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