Publishers Weekly
06/05/2023
Former National Park Service ranger Lankford (Ranger Confidential) provides a memorable account of her search for three young men who went missing along the 2,650-mile-long Pacific Crest Trail in successive years. In 2017, almost two decades after she retired from a 12-year stint with the park service, Lankford teamed up with amateur investigators seeking answers about the fates of Kris Fowler, David O’Sullivan, and Chris Silva, who were each attempting to hike the entire PCT in one year before they vanished from the same exact footpath in Washington State. Though every other missing hiker in the trail’s 55-year history had been found, rigorous searches for the three men had turned up nothing. So Lankford and her team—including one victim’s mother, a former pharmacy manager, and a cartographer—delve deep into less traditional search methods, such as scouring Facebook groups for information. Lankford excels at making the searches feel immediate, and asks incisive questions about how long is too long to pursue cold-case investigations (“Our dogged pursuit for answers jeopardized our livelihoods, our mental stamina, and our health,” she writes). Readers expecting conclusive answers about the men’s whereabouts will be disappointed, but this is a gripping real-life mystery. Agent: Andrea Blatt, WME. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
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"[G]ripping... Trail of the Lost is about the hikers and the efforts to find them, but it's also a rich, multilayered narrative that works on three different levels... Trail of the Lost is written with a clear, fast-paced, straightforward prose that still manages to be beautiful and immersive. It is also as full of hope and humanity as it is packed with pain, grief, danger, and tension. This is a book in which the PCT is as much of a character as every person Lankford writes about, and that balance makes it worthy reading."
—NPR
"Summer is a great time for adventures, even the armchair kind! Andrea Lankford’s Trail of the Lost is perfect for this kind of read."—American Scientist
"When author Andrea Lankford says that she put 'a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and broken bones' into her new work of nonfiction, Trail of the Lost, she’s not speaking in metaphor... [this is a] book that satisfies and educates. It also paints a picture of the remarkable generosity of people along the trail, from Tarr to the so-called 'trail angels'... the book is also a portrait of hope and resilience, especially when it comes to Langford, Tarr, and the families of the missing."—San Francisco Chronicle
“The real science of searching in nature is the most interesting—and disturbing—part of Lankford’s account…She writes openly about her search and rescue missions for NPS and how she is still haunted by those that failed. People who weren’t found in time, or weren’t found at all. She has faced families trying to emotionally recalibrate from 'rescue' to 'recovery.' She makes us care about the lost men through details of their lives before the PCT, and the volunteers keeping the searches going.”—The Spectator
"[A] riveting story, incredibly well-written and exhaustively researched."—The Missing and Unexplained podcast
“A fascinating story.....this book will tear at your heartstrings, but it will also keep you riveted along the way."—History Nerds United
"The book has a great pace, the chapters are well structured, and there are black and white copies of the three mens’ missing posters. Lankford expertly switches between explaining search and hiking techniques and gives us insight into the people conducting such searches."—Defrosting Cold Cases
“Trail of the Lost is a unique contribution to both outdoor literature and true crime.... Lankford details the cases of these missing hikers without being voyeuristic or exploitative, instead being mindful of the humanity of the people about whom she’s writing, as well as their loved ones, remembering that lives and hearts are at stake.”—Eastern Mountain Sports
“A gripping real-life mystery.”—Publishers Weekly
“A gut-wrenching and compelling investigation of long-distance treks gone wrong.”—Kirkus
“It’s hard to imagine who else could have produced a work like this. Her book is a sprawling portrait of an area whose fantastical features practically necessitate the use of metaphor: The pale rocks south of the San Jacinto Mountains ‘resemble bottom teeth erupting from forested gums.’ Above all, this is a profile of two subcultures: hikers and their searchers, who share an inconceivable tenacity and sometimes a similar desperation.”—Wall Street Journal
Kirkus Reviews
2023-06-28
A former park ranger chronicles her attempts to find missing hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Lankford spent 12 years as a National Park Service ranger specializing in rescue missions and investigations of missing hikers in some of the most scenic and remote places in the U.S. Eventual disillusionment with bureaucracy led her to quit. However, 20 years later, compelled by three separate cases of missing PCT hikers, she found herself unable to turn away despite the nearly impossible challenge. In one case, she entered a pursuit where “even after fifty professional searchers—some with dogs, some from the air—searched the area for five days, they found no sign of the missing hiker.” Still, with the help of unlikely allies, including a government mapmaker who tracked potential terrorist activity, a retired pharmacy manager, and the mother of a missing hiker, Lankford canvassed countless miles of wilderness and maintained charts of relevant data. “The American wilderness is still vast and treacherous,” she reminds us, while the clues were sparse and haunting: unreliable sightings months after disappearance, a blue backpack left trailside, a dog-eared copy of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha in a hiker free box. While looking for the missing hikers, the author was forced to contend with gun-protected illegal pot farms, a cult, exposed cliff sides, temperature extremes, poisonous snakes, and wild animals of all kinds. Off-trail, the pursuit involved examining information for reliability, skimming drone footage (called “squinting”), and the intricacies of missing persons groups on Facebook. In a book that is part true crime, part wilderness cautionary tale, Lankford follows the lost hikers with intensity and compassion. The narrative is paced well, and the author ably demonstrates the hardships of uncertainty and fear in the wake of the unknown. Most of all, she showcases the group’s grit and determination in the pursuit of answers.
A gut-wrenching and compelling investigation of long-distance treks gone wrong.
