In the Pines is a stomach-churning account of obsession and madness. It drags the reader into the dark woods to reveal its hideous secrets and devastating truths, begging them to examine the origins of violence and forcing them to face the limits of love. One night, while driving down a remote highway on a secluded corner of the Olympic Peninsula, Gideon Burke encounters a young woman hitchhiking on the side of the road. Her knees are bloodied, her knuckles battered, and she looks half-drowned. Her name is Mara, or so she says, but everything out of her mouth is a lie. Gideon knows exactly who she is, and what she's running from. Her name is Cassandra Lee. And she's running from him. As Gideon and "Mara" make their way down the road and into the wilderness, he wrestles with the monster who lives inside of him, the one who tells him that everything-even love-is a lie and that nothing is real. Who can he believe: the girl next to him or the monster? Content Warning: This book contains adult language, violence, and explicit sex.
