by Shanna Hogan
First published 2019
Erin Corwin drives into the Mojave Desert on a June morning in 2014 and never comes home. The nineteen-year-old Marine wife was pregnant and living quietly at Twentynine Palms with her husband Jon, a Marine corporal. Her disappearance triggers a massive search through Joshua Tree National Park as temperatures soar past one hundred degrees. Nearly two months later, searchers find her body in an abandoned mine shaft with a homemade garrote around her neck. The investigation focuses on the tight-knit Marine community where suspicion falls on their own. Christopher Lee, a fellow Marine who lived next door with his wife, becomes the prime suspect. Detectives uncover a secret romance between Chris and Erin that raises questions about her unborn child's paternity. While Erin researched baby names online, Chris was searching for methods to dispose of human remains. His hunting alibi crumbles under scrutiny. Award-winning journalist Shanna Hogan reconstructs this case of betrayal and murder through court records and interviews.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, true-crime
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, secret-romance
Setting: Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave Desert, Twentynine Palms
Period: 2014
320 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press
Content warnings: murder, violence