Hello all! I just finished with a thriller/suspense novel, Leave No Trace by Mindy Meijia and I can’t wait to share my insight about the book with you all!

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.

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books (September 4, 2018)
• Language: English
• Genre: Suspense, Mystery

Mindy Mejia is an internationally acclaimed thriller writer, known for mixing compelling characters with page-turning suspense against the backdrop of the US Midwest. Her books have been chosen for People’s Best New Books Pick and listed in The Wall Street Journal’s Best New Mysteries. She lives and works in the Twin Cities. Learn more about Mindy at http://www.MindyMejia.com.

I have not read her first novel, Everything You Want Me to Be yet but this book, Leave No Trace is her second book. In a nutshell, the story is about a boy named Lucas Blackthorne who disappeared with his father while camping in Boundary Waters which is a remote mountainous place. A decade later, Lucas returns back, instantly becoming famous and due to his violent nature, the police put him into a psychiatric facility. While there, he meets a speech therapist, Maya Stark who is assigned to make him talk so the police could find his father. And Maya too is battling with her own demons.

So let’s begin with the good things

• The story is told from the perspective of Maya Stark, who is actually the main protagonist in the story. So it is interesting to read into Maya’s thoughts, how she is battling with her guilt that her mother left because of her, her past that came back again, tormenting her, and her relationship with Lucas and Dr. Mehta and what she actually thinks about them.
• I really like the author’s style of writing–using vivid descriptions and phrases and I liked her style of writing.
• The story itself is interesting. Lucas Blackthorne with the intention of getting help for his father, who is apparently stuck in the forest. The reader is curious to know why both the father and son escaped into the wilderness and the author has dedicated some chapters to Josiah, Lucas’ father so we can actually find why Josiah escaped into the wilderness with Lucas. This thought, if Josiah had actually killed someone or not is keeping the reader on the edge
• I enjoyed reading about the wilderness in Boundary Waters–the author does a good job, creating a mental image to the reader of what the place really is like. I felt as if I am in that part of world too!
• The story was intense and interesting as the reader is kept on the edge of the seat to know, what is going to happen to Maya and Lucas (I am not going to spoil you in here)
• I also liked reading about Maya’s past life, the time when she was a trouble teenager so we could actually get to know about her past and her character.

Now let’s talk about the ones I didn’t like about the book.

• I wondered if a therapist helping his/her patient to escape is actually a reality–I mean I know most psychiatric hospital, particularly in isolation ward is of high security so I was wondering if that scene was realistic (SPOILER ALERT)

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, it was a good, suspenseful and interesting. Recommend this book to anyone and I give a four star rating!