Mariah Is Missing

Inspired by a true event in the Big Sky Country of North Central Montana in the 1970s, Mariah Is Missing tells a compelling tale about a small town and the memorable people who live, work, love, and drink there.

In his debut novel, David Henry Nelson reimagines the story behind a crime which occurred in 1974 while he served as the county attorney in Pondera County, Montana. He realized years later that this case had a long-lived ripple effect on many people, which prompted him to write this book.

In Maria Is Missing, Ana McGuire, a prosecuting attorney, must solve the disappearance of an attractive young school teacher who is reported missing from her Monday morning class, while navigating a male-dominated professional world of law and local politics. 

She tangles with a zealous sheriff and an egocentric county commissioner as she deals with complications in her past and present relationships with two men in her life, Rib Torgerson and Fat Jack Moser, and encounters a variety of colorful townspeople. This suspenseful novel offers a dramatic recreation of the past and a fascinating insider view of what it's like to investigate a murder.