She thought the friendly stranger with the cooler of cold drinks was the safest person on the trail. She was wrong about which stranger to fear. Two hundred and fourteen miles into a solo thru-hike, Mara has finally stopped checking over her shoulder - until she meets Gus, the trail angel every shelter register mentions by name, and starts noticing he always seems to know exactly where she'll be next. The quiet, watchful hiker everyone avoids turns out to be the one person willing to tell her the truth: for four years, hikers who mention going solo past Gus's stretch have a habit of never signing another register again. Off Trail is a tense, atmospheric psychological thriller about the strangers we trust by default and the ones we judge on sight - and what it costs to figure out, alone in the backcountry, which instinct was wrong. What's inside: - A solo-hiker-in-danger thriller grounded in the real culture of long-distance trails - A trail angel whose helpfulness is the scariest thing about him - An unlikely ally who's been quietly watching for years - A complete, fast-paced read perfect for one sitting Perfect for readers who love survival-thriller tension, flawed strangers, and a heroine who turns the trail's own rules against the man hunting her. Mara had told her sister she was hiking the ridge alone because she wanted the quiet, and that was true, but it wasn't the whole truth, which was that six months after the divorce she had needed to prove to herself she could still be somewhere with no one checking on her and come out the other side fine. Two hundred and fourteen miles in, she still hadn't decided if she was proving it or just delaying finding out she couldn't.
