The Shimmering Road

Following the well-received The Gates of Evangeline, this is the second book in Young's thriller trilogy featuring journalist Charlotte "Charlie" Cates, whose nightmare visions guide her in seeking justice and preventing tragedy for the most defenseless kids. Charlie has left the East Coast behind to start a new life in Texas with Noah and the daughter they're expecting. Charlie soon learns that her estranged mother and a half sister she didn't know about have been murdered in Tucson, AZ, leaving behind her niece Micky. Feeling obligated to help the young girl, Charlie and Noah make the trip to Arizona, where they're faced with the mystery of the killings and some tough decisions about how best to help Micky. Charlie's investigation of her mother's former work at a nonprofit organization leads her to the Mexican border town of Nogales and the settlement near the garbage dump of Tirabichi, where kids sift through trash looking for items to recycle. The answers that she begins to uncover there lead her on a nightmarish adventure across the Sonoran Desert.