Book: The Last Woman in the Forest

Inspired by the unsolved Connecticut River Valley murders that took place along the corridor of the Vermont and New Hampshire border in the 1980s, The Last Woman in the Forest (Penguin Random House, $26) is Diane Les Becquets’s adaptation of this real-life mystery into her our own tale, which takes place in the untamed Montana wilderness. Conservation worker Marian Engström finds herself in the northern Rocky Mountains working with rescue dogs in an effort to help protect endangered wildlife. She falls in love with her mentor and fellow conservation worker, Tate. However, after Tate’s tragic death, Marian becomes obsessed with the details surrounding a group of connected murders in Montana. Marian can’t shake the feeling that her late love interest was in some way connected with these serial murders. Marian enlists the help of a retired forensic profiler familiar with the murders and together they slowly unravel the mystery. The author truly captures the wilderness landscape, bringing you along for surprising twists as the story unfolds.