Review: Vanishing Edge: A Novel by Claire Kells

Just over three years ago, Felicity Harland should have died while on a camping trip with her partner Kevin. He vanished and she was left with his loss and a destroyed back. While the FBI granted her an extended medical leave, over time she read the proverbial writing on the wall, and left the agency. These days she is a recently hired Criminal Investigator for the Investigative Services Branch and deals with crimes of all types that happen in National Parks.

 

Pulled off a case in Yosemite, she and her dog, a Shepard mix named Ollie, soon find themselves in Sequoia National Park dealing with Chief Ranger Rick Corrigan. He called her because of an abandoned campsite out in the vicinity of Precipice Lake. Ferdinand Huxley, the ranger that inspected the scene, could not find anyone. Clearly the campsite was set up by a very expensive company that caters to the wealthy. Their logo was on every item at the site. One of those companies that specializes in “luxury camping” where they set up everything so their wealthy clients do nothing but show up. While nobody knows who the clients are, and the company reps won’t say claiming privacy concerns, it is pretty clear that they are not there. A check of the area indicates that the folks are not just wandering around nearby either.

 

Huxley and Handy team up and it is not long before they find signs that indicated at least one of the missing campers crashed through a hole in the ice on the high-altitude lake. It is April and still cold, so that person is most likely dead.  Recovery of the body is going to be difficult and require a tea and resources. That still does not address what happened to at least one other person who had been at the campsite.

 

Then there is the fact that missing wealthy campers is not the only problem in these woods. Nature itself is not the only threat in Vanishing Edge: A Novel by Claire Kells.

 

Billed as the first book in a new series, this is an intense and complicated read. Along with plenty of backstory for the two primary characters Huxley and Hardy, that is slowly revealed, the case itself is a complicated chase that runs from the mountains of the park to the streets of Los Angeles. Much is at work here in this novel that sets an expansive and detailed ground floor for the upcoming series. This very good book is well worth your time and strongly recommended.

 

 

My reading copy came from the Highland Hills Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2022