Leave No Trace

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by Mindy Mejia

Psychiatric patient Lucas Blackthorn and speech therapist Maya Stark have some unusual things in common: both have been patients at Congdon psychiatric hospital, and both have a bone-deep yearning to be reunited with a missing parent.

Maya’s mother, Jane Stark, is a geologist who taught her about minerals and the metamorphic pressures that shaped Lake Superior and the rocky foundations of Duluth.

She struggled with depression, attempted suicide and eventually disappeared without saying good-bye.

Lucas’ father, Josiah Blackthorn, vanished with Lucas into the Boundary Waters between Minnesota and Canada after being questioned by police in connection with the death of his heroin-addicted landlady. Once gone, they weren’t heard from for 10 years.

Lucas was forced back into society and Congdon after breaking into an outfitters store and killing one owner and injuring the other. In the hospital, he is silent, violent and repeatedly tries to escape. During one attempt, Maya is the staff member who brings him down. She’s assigned to work with him to determine if he can’t speak or just refuses to.

As Maya works with Lucas, she learns that he left his sick father in the Boundary Waters area to get first aid supplies. Lucas fears that unless he can get back, his father will die. He refuses to lead the authorities to their camp where they might arrest his father.

This is a story of two people forced to be so self-reliant, they are unable to open up to others. And yet they become invested in each other’s search for a missing parent. If Maya helps Lucas find his father, is she letting an unbalanced killer out free? Will her father and her psychiatrist and boss ever trust her again?

The descriptions of Lake Superior and Duluth in this book are beautiful. The story is startling at turns and suspenseful. This book is solidly in the “beach, pool and airplane” category. I discovered it after reading about how author Mindy Mejia was encouraged to become a CPA and discovered she loved what numbers could reveal. I expected a financial thriller. This definitely is not that.

About the Author: Mindy Mejia CPA

Mindy Mejia earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and a master of fine arts degree from Hamline University in Saint Paul, MN. She has lived most of her life in the Twin Cities area. She has held a series of jobs ranging from from apple orchard laborer to a global credit manager.

Her debut novel was THE DRAGON KEEPER (2012). She has since written EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE (2017), and STRIKE ME DOWN (2020).

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