Trail of Silence (Sloane Merritt Mystery Thriller Series, #3)

A missing mother. A mountain full of secrets. And a truth that refuses to stay buried.

When twenty-one-year-old Tessa Grady hires private investigator Sloane Merritt to uncover what really happened to her mother on a remote hiking trip five years ago, Sloane expects grief.

She doesn’t expect lies.

Natalie Grady vanished on day five of a seven-day trek through the North Georgia mountains. Five women returned. Natalie didn’t.

But when the group invites Tessa to join their annual memorial hike—on the very same trail where Natalie disappeared—Sloane goes undercover as her aunt to uncover the truth.

What she finds is a web of secrets held together by guilt, loyalty, and fear.

As tensions rise in the wilderness and someone begins sabotaging the trip, Sloane realizes this isn’t just a memorial—it’s a reckoning. And someone will do anything to keep the past buried.

With the clock ticking and the terrain growing more dangerous by the hour, Sloane must untangle five years of silence before the mountain claims another victim.

Perfect for fans of missing persons thrillers, female-led detective series, and gripping psychological suspense, Trail of Secrets is Book Three in the Sloane Merritt Mystery series—where every disappearance hides a deeper truth.

And for Sloane, solving this case is only the beginning.

Because the twenty-year-old cold case that defines her life—the mysterious disappearance of her childhood best friend, Eden Pike—is finally starting to move.

And this time… the past is fighting back.