In this “riveting, atmospheric thriller that messes with your mind in the best way” (Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author), three residents of a secluded, seemingly peaceful commune investigate the disappearances of two outsiders.

Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James --- a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books --- he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend.

Called Pastoral, this reclusive community was founded in the 1970s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore and soon after Travis stumbles upon it…he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.

Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis’s abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not when there’s a risk of bringing a disease --- rot --- into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo; his wife, Calla; and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn’t as safe as they believed --- and that darkness takes many forms.

“As spine-chilling as it is beautifully crafted” (Ruth Emmie Lang, author of BEASTS OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE), A HISTORY OF WILD PLACES is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind.

Audiobook available; read by Carlotta Brentan, Cassandra Campbell, Gibson Frazier, Cindy Kay and Pete Simonelli