Creepy good mystery!
According to the author, this book is based very loosely on a true mystery murder that occurred in 1964 in the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania where this book takes place.
Women are disappearing along the Appalachian Trail and never seen again ...until now. Sheriff Marty Wayne begins an investigation and finds that women have gone missing in the same area for more than 10 years.
Judy Wells, DEA Agent, is tracking a plane that went down in the area carrying a lot of cocaine.
And this is where both cases collide.
Meet Rattleman ...so called because he wears a collar of rattlesnake tails around his neck. He hunts and collects them to sell to the locals who use them in their medicine. He's very quiet...speaks very little. He's dirty, long-haired and carries a really big knife.
I repeat ... creepy good mystery! The reader knows who fairly early in the game. It's what he does to all these women that gave me the shudders. His back-story is most interesting. He really is quite a character.
Wayne and Wells are both carrying a lot of baggage, but somehow manage to muddle through all that to concentrate to catching this vicious killer.
The author has done a great job describing the mountainous area. It's quite evident that he grew up in the area
The action and energy stays constant through the entire book .. there are no boring areas, no places that lag. It's the last part of the book that will have the reader breathing just a little harder, anxious to see where this all leads.
The ending left me thinking about this book for a long time.
5 Stars from me.
According to the author, this book is based very loosely on a true mystery murder that occurred in 1964 in the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania where this book takes place.
Women are disappearing along the Appalachian Trail and never seen again ...until now. Sheriff Marty Wayne begins an investigation and finds that women have gone missing in the same area for more than 10 years.
Judy Wells, DEA Agent, is tracking a plane that went down in the area carrying a lot of cocaine.
And this is where both cases collide.
Meet Rattleman ...so called because he wears a collar of rattlesnake tails around his neck. He hunts and collects them to sell to the locals who use them in their medicine. He's very quiet...speaks very little. He's dirty, long-haired and carries a really big knife.
I repeat ... creepy good mystery! The reader knows who fairly early in the game. It's what he does to all these women that gave me the shudders. His back-story is most interesting. He really is quite a character.
Wayne and Wells are both carrying a lot of baggage, but somehow manage to muddle through all that to concentrate to catching this vicious killer.
The author has done a great job describing the mountainous area. It's quite evident that he grew up in the area
The action and energy stays constant through the entire book .. there are no boring areas, no places that lag. It's the last part of the book that will have the reader breathing just a little harder, anxious to see where this all leads.
The ending left me thinking about this book for a long time.
5 Stars from me.
