Award-winning journalist and science writer Miles (Quakeland) investigates the shocking 1996 murders of Julie Williams and Lollie Winans. Williams and Winans were brutally attacked while camping in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, near the Appalachian Trail. For almost a decade, National Park Service rangers and the FBI were convinced that Darrell David Rice was guilty of the crime, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. With cool restraint, narrator Gabra Zackman describes Miles's meticulous research into the case, detailing her deep dive into news stories, case files, and hundreds of interviews with witnesses, law enforcement, and family members. Miles developed a personal, even obsessive interest in the case, which led her to uncover shoddy police work. With a perfectly modulated voice, Zackman channels Miles's intense, analytical mind, implacably putting forth a chilling case that another man, Richard Marc Evonitz, is a more likely suspect. VERDICT Reminiscent of Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark, this compelling audio is a necessary purchase for true crime fans, especially those interested in the backstories, historical context, and larger political questions raised by this intriguing investigation.--Sarah Hashimoto

Miles (Quakeland, 2017) turns to true crime in her latest work of mesmerizing journalism. In 1996, Julie Williams and Lollie Winans were murdered in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, near the Appalachian Trail. Twenty years later, working as a professor at the Maine college Winans had attended, Miles begins her investigation into these unsolved murders. Skilled hikers with different yet equally magnetic personalities, Williams and Winans fell in love while working at Woodswomen, an outdoor leadership training organization. Like Michelle McNamara in I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018), Miles becomes obsessed with the crime as she researches it, to the point of fearing for her own safety on camping trips. Discovering the relatively high rate of violence in national parks, especially against women, and their woefully understaffed ranger services does nothing to ease her mind. As she digs further into the case, Miles finds huge loopholes in the FBI's investigation, especially after they set their sights on a suspect, Darrell David Rice. Utterly engaging and always respectful, Trailed is highly recommended for true crime fans who love fascinating tangents, like those Miles offers on the National Park Service, Woodswomen, and the establishment of hate crime laws.

In 2016, Miles (Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake) became obsessed with the unsolved case of Julie Williams and Lollie Winans, a couple in their 20s who were murdered in 1996 while hiking in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, leading her to spend four years researching this engrossing account. Through extensive investigations and the help of attorney Deirdre Enright and her Innocence Project students, Miles discounted the National Park Service rangers' and FBI's theories that Darrel David Rice was the murderer. Rice, in prison for assaulting a female cyclist in Shenandoah Park in 1998, was indicted for the double homicide in 2002, but the case was dismissed in 2004 when DNA evidence ruled him out. The loss of evidence by the time the crime scene was investigated and park service efforts to keep the deaths quiet for fear of losing tourists hampered the inquiry, but Miles makes a convincing case that serial killer Richard Marc Evonitz, who died by suicide in 2002 as police closed in on him, was the likely culprit, though the FBI declined to connect him to the Williams and Winans murders. Along the way, Miles takes a comprehensive look at police procedures in federal parks and violence against women in rural areas. This fascinating if often grim story is a must for true crime buffs. Agents: Wendy Strothman and Lauren MacLeod, Strothman Literary. (May)

An award-winning science writer investigates the 1996 backcountry murders of two hikers. Miles first heard about the Shenandoah Valley murders of Lollie Winans and Julie Williams at Unity College, "a small environmental studies college located in the foothills of central Maine," where she began teaching in 2001. A survivor of sexual abuse, Winans had been a popular student who led wilderness trips to help other assault victims move through the healing process. The summer before their deaths, Winans and Williams had fallen in love while working at an outdoor program called Woodswomen, Inc. By the time Miles left Unity in 2016, she found herself "trailed" by their story, which had never found resolution. Their suspected attacker, Darrell Rice, served a 10-year prison term for their assault before being released. However, the prosecution for murder stalled, leaving the case in limbo. For the next four years, Miles immersed herself in court transcripts, news stories, scholarship, and interviews with more than 100 sources. The "deficiencies and mistakes" she uncovered in police investigations appalled her. Richard Marc Evonitz, another suspect, had been linked with other kidnappings and murders in the South. Yet police dismissed him despite DNA evidence collected from the Winans-Williams murder site that suggested his guilt. Researching a vibrator left behind at the crime scene, Miles found links back to Evonitz, a sexual fetishist and known pedophile who killed himself in 2002. What makes this story so chilling is not just that the author had to "police law enforcement" in order to determine their investigative errors. She also shows how "every year there is demonstrable evidence that women, African Americans, and nonbinary and LGBT people have good reason to wonder if they are safe in the wilderness, which in many ways is still considered a white male domain." Gripping and thoughtful, this book will appeal to those with an interest in true-crime stories and unsettling truths about places deemed safe for all. Disturbing and provocative. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.