Endless Search

Two girls from a South Dakota high school are last seen heading to a keg party at a sandpit near town, a celebration of their graduation. Investigators soon focus on Eli Thorson, a local neighbor whose record with the law already includes an attempted rape. Eli says he has no idea where the girls are, and no trace of them ever turns up.

Thirty-three years later, a Cold Case Unit reopens the disappearance. Eli is now a repeat offender with a long history of violence and the sexual abuse of women, and suspicion lands on him once more. The novel asks whether he is responsible for what happened to the two girls.