The Cold Vanish
Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands
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- $229.00
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- $229.00
Descripción editorial
Perfect for readers of Jon Krakauer and Douglas Preston, this "authentic and encyclopedic" book examines real-life cases of those who vanish in the wilderness without a trace (Roman Dial)—and those eccentric, determined characters who try to find them.
These are the stories that defy conventional logic. The proverbial vanished without a trace incidences, which happen a lot more (and a lot closer to your backyard) than almost anyone thinks. These are the missing whose situations are the hardest on loved ones left behind. The cases that are an embarrassment for park superintendents, rangers and law enforcement charged with Search & Rescue. The ones that baffle the volunteers who comb the mountains, woods and badlands. The stories that should give you pause every time you venture outdoors.
Through Jacob Gray's disappearance in Olympic National Park, and his father Randy Gray who left his life to search for him, we will learn about what happens when someone goes missing. Braided around the core will be the stories of the characters who fill the vacuum created by a vanished human being. We'll meet eccentric bloodhound-handler Duff and R.C., his flagship purebred, who began trailing with the family dog after his brother vanished in the San Gabriel Mountains. And there's Michael Neiger North America's foremost backcountry Search & Rescue expert and self-described "bushman" obsessed with missing persons. And top researcher of persons missing on public wildlands Ex-San Jose, California detective David Paulides who is also one of the world's foremost Bigfoot researchers.
It's a tricky thing to write about missing persons because the story is the absence of someone. A void. The person at the heart of the story is thinner than a smoke ring, invisible as someone else's memory. The bones you dig up are most often metaphorical. While much of the book will embrace memory and faulty memory—history—The Cold Vanish is at its core a story of now and tomorrow. Someone will vanish in the wild tomorrow. These are the people who will go looking.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In April 2017, 22-year-old Jacob Gray, whose case forms the heart of this beautifully written chronicle from Billman (When We Were Wolves: Stories), disappeared while cycling in Olympic National Park in Washington State. It would take 18 months before his body was found on a mountainside, and it remains unclear whether his death was suicide or caused by hypothermia. Billman describes how red tape and the lack of National Park staff hampered the search, and how he accompanied Jacob's father, Randy Gray, to Olympic National Park, and then to other places Jacob might have traveled to. In between accounts of the search for Jacob, Billman reports on the phenomena of people vanishing into the wilderness, covering famous cases, search and rescue dogs, and theories about why people go missing, including serial killers and Bigfoot abductions. Colorful side characters, like psychics and Bigfoot hunters, provide some light moments, but what makes a lasting impression is the story of Randy and his ultimately dashed hopes of finding his son alive. The author's personal involvement makes this tale all the more affecting. Billman shows himself to be just as adept at nonfiction as at fiction.
