Hard Truth, by Nevada Barr

Retrieved from: my library
(0399152415), 2005
Suggested by: The List
My Ratings: 10 Merit, 10 Interest, 9 Fun

Since this is title in the series is set in Rocky Mountain National Park, I figured I'd be thrilled reading it. And, in a sense, I was, but the people in this book are so horrifying that they kind of blocked out the scenery and nostalgia.

Anna has left her new husband in Mississippi to take a promotion in Colorado, for a year and then they'll reassess. Several weeks before she arrives, three girls disappeared while on a church campout/retreat leaving no trace. The book opens with two of them suddenly turning up near one of the campsites in the park. They are reunited with their families, a group of shady people living nearby, in a shady bigamistic arrangement.

And that's the good part. Before Anna gets to the end of the case, finds the third girl and figures out what's been going on, she uncovers probably the creepiest, ickiest villain yet in her series. This is truly psychotic, evil stuff. Then again, this is the same author who made me nervous about spelunking in her book about Carlsbad.

She's back in form, and that's a good thing.