YOSEMITE LIES

Two women go hiking in California and encounter more danger than they ever expected in this novel.

Kate Johnson visited Yosemite National Park regularly when she was growing up. She returns now as an adult with her friend Veronica Hammond, who is going through a messy divorce. On their first night, they meet Darren and Maddock, fellow campers who invite them to a party. They decline, which is just as well. Darren and Maddock aren’t just innocently camping nearby; they’ve been paid to commit a serious crime. The next day, Kate and Veronica meet a man named Nash while hiking; he’s mysterious, and Veronica doesn’t trust him. While savoring Yosemite’s sights, Kate and Veronica talk a lot about weighty matters, including Veronica’s divorce, which stems from her husband’s leaving her for a younger woman. Veronica is bitter about that event as well as the glass ceiling she keeps hitting in her technology career. As the two women hike, they encounter Nash again. They also keep running into Darren and Maddock. The suspicious pair are clearly trying to kidnap Kate and Veronica, but Nash foils the plot. Nash, a retired soldier, was involved in an incident that made the news a year ago, one that Kate remembers. Once she works out who he really is, they start to bond and Nash reveals that he’s on the run from the law. Everyone hiking in Yosemite seems to have secrets. And Veronica’s secret is perhaps the greatest one of all and the most unexpected. Catron’s gripping story delivers a lot of intriguing twists and turns, and the big reveal is a shocking one. But the novel takes a while to get there. The tale reads a bit like a travelogue, and Kate sometimes speaks as if she’s a park official citing facts from a website—“Four million people visit Yosemite each year. The park has twelve hundred square miles, but the vast majority never venture beyond the valley’s seven square miles.” While hikers will appreciate these informative details, they bog down the first third of the book. Still, patient readers will enjoy the thrilling action that follows.

A riveting tale about friendship and betrayal set in Yosemite.