Review with Spoilers of the Wilds

Plot Summary of The Wilds by Sarah Pearse

So first off, we learn the backstory to this trilogy, which begins back in 2018 in the UK.

A woman named Kier is frightened of her ex-boyfriend and Detective Elin Warner offers to help her. Kier arranges a meeting, but Elin, wrapped up with the Hayler boat murders, her now-shaky career, and her mother’s death, drops the ball.

So Kier gets ghosted by Elin AND Kier’s twin brother Penn is busy with his own impending wedding.

Kier has also been researching Zeph’s ex-girlfriend, Romy, (ALL THESE FOUR LETTER NAMES) and learns that Zeph stalked Romy too, after they broke up.

Kier heads to Portugal to find Romy, where she vanishes. (Kier, that is. But apparently Romy is also missing.)

This is where the book starts:

Elin and her brother Isaac (from book one) are holidaying in Portugal at an Airstream park. Isaac mentions the missing Kier, who is his friend Penn’s twin sister.

Remember Elin is still reeling from:

• the implosion of her career over the Hayler boat murder case
• the events of book one and two

While Isaac lost his partner, Laure, in book one.

Elin and Isaac start to explore the park and meet a group of people in a caravan park. ( I was not entirely clear on caravan park vs Airstream. I guess the Airstream area is more a glamping site.)

Elin being Elin starts finding clues about Kier. She’s also in touch with Steed, the colleague she worked with in book two. Isaac teases her a little. Is there a romance brewing?

But remember this is a dual narrative book with Kier

So while Elin explores the park in 2021, we see Kier in the UK beginning to wonder if her new partner Zeph is abusive. She also (as mentioned above) starts asking Zeph about Romy.

Kier is an artist and she draws maps that are as much art as cartography (I wished the finished book had her map!)

Elin and Isaac talk to a local gallery owner, who has Kier’s map of the national park, which is filled with clues.

Shocking Revelation One

We learn that in 2018, Kier sought Elin’s help in dealing with Kier. But Elin was all wrapped up in her Hayler case and forgot to meet Kier.

Kier then breaks up with Zeph and he is stalking her. When she learns that he was stalking Romy too, she heads to Portugal to find her.

Shocking Revelation Two

Isaac tells Elin that Penn, Kier’s twin, is coming to Portugal. He does and ….. Penn is Steed.

Elin is shocked and upset at this betrayal. But it’s even worse than that:

• Penn/Steed has been furious at Elin since the beginning of the trilogy, blaming her for Kier’s disappearance
• Penn/Steed was the one leaving the nasty messages about Elin in book two
• Penn/Steed followed Isaac and Elin to Switzerland (what?) and befriended Isaac then

Elin considers dropping her investigation into Kier, but she keeps going.

Ending Explained of The Wilds by Sarah Pearse

She realizes that “Bridie,” one of the caravan campers, is actually Romy.

The caravaners are not the sinister cult that Elin and Isaac thought. They are a group that helps abused women get away from their abusers and have a chance to heal.

We finally learn what happened to Kier:

• Zeph tracked her to Portugal
• He tried to choke her and Romy came to her aid
• First Romy hit Zeph with a heavy glass bowl, and then Kier
• The caravan group got rid of Zeph’s body at “Suicide Falls.”
• Kier ended up in a coma and then in a rehab center, where she still is. The caravan group was taking care of her dog and raising Etta, Kier’s two year-old daughter by Zeph.

While I’m sure you are glad Kier is okay, I know we have questions, like:

Who was following Elin back in book one?

I think it had to be Penn/Steed. He followed Elin to Switzerland. In The Wilds he says ” I wanted you to know what it felt like to have someone watching you like they were watching her [Kier]”

Who pushed Elin into the hot tub in book one?

The mystery person who did it admits it at the end of book one, saying that Elin was “oblivious to what happened by the plunge book, and exactly whose hand it was at the small of her back. Pressing. Pushing.”

So it had to be Penn/Steed, right? But if there was a discussion of this in The Wilds, I missed it. There are two chapters with Penn/Steed explaining and apologizing, and then she tells him to stay away and finishes the case.

So all our wacky theories in the comments on my Spoiler Discussion for the Sanatorium were wrong:

• The death of Sam, Isaac and Elin’s brother, was just a tragic accident
• Sam is not alive seeking revenge
• Hayler, the “boat murderer” and nothing to do with any of it.
• Michael Zimmerman had nothing to do with it

But still, does this make sense?

Remember:

• In book one the hotel was almost completely evacuated due to the storm. And as there were multiple murders, Elin had interviewed all the guests.
• Elin saw video footage of the person who pushed her into the plunge pool, but couldn’t identify that person.

So how did Elin not recognize Steed, either then or later? (I don’t have a copy of The Retreat and can’t look up if Steed was a new colleague in that book, but will do that ASAP and add it.)

But still, in book two, shouldn’t she have remembered seeing Steed in the hotel in Switzerland?