Cave Mountain: A Disappearance and a Reckoning in the Ozarks

I didn't know where this book was headed when I started, and I sure didn't expect where it would end up. Hale grew up in Colorado, but his family is from, and has largely remained, in the steep hills of Arkansas, and in 2001, his six-year-old cousin disappeared during a family hike in those hills. Hale recounts that dramatic tale, which prompted a massive search and rescue operation, but then takes a leap to tell a darker but eerily similar story from the same mountains twenty years before. Hale's curiosity, both as a storyteller and a moral inquirer, and his investment in both stories make this a far more tender, subtle, and personal story than the usual true-crime tale. —Tom
(I listened to the audiobook of Cave Mountain, wonderfully read by the author, which you can order from our audiobook partners at Libro.fm.)