There is a place in Minnesota with hundreds of miles of glacial lakes and untouched forests called the Boundary Waters. Ten years ago a man and his son trekked into this wilderness and never returned.
Search teams found their campsite ravaged by what looked like a bear. They were presumed dead until a decade later…the son appeared. Discovered while ransacking an outfitter store, he was violent and uncommunicative and sent to a psychiatric facility. Maya Stark, the assistant language therapist, is charged with making a connection with their high-profile patient. No matter how she tries, however, he refuses to answer questions about his father or the last ten years of his life
But Maya, who was abandoned by her own mother, has secrets, too. And as she’s drawn closer to this enigmatic boy who is no longer a boy, she’ll risk everything to reunite him with his father who has disappeared from the known world.
Having been a huge fan of “The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman“ I was intrigued to find out how Mindy Mejia would follow that up.
Leave No Trace is a gorgeous, emotionally resonant read, once again peppered with beautifully drawn characters who creep up on you. Descriptively this is brilliantly done bringing the wild and edgy setting to vivid life.
Into this comes Maya, once a psychiatric patient herself, now a person who helps others. But she and the untamed Lucas are drawn together by more than just a patient/therapist relationship and it will change them both in unexpected ways..
This is a road journey of sorts, both literally and figuratively as Maya deals with her past and her growing connection to Lucas. It is thought provoking and highly addictive- not some little part of me felt like disappearing into the wilderness myself, such was the power of it in places.
This was a clever, memorable novel and one that will stay with me in both character and setting and has put Mindy Mejia firmly on my list of must read authors.
Recommended.
You can order Leave No Trace (Quercus) Here.
Happy Reading!
