In a remote park on top of a hill overlooking Los Angeles—in the dead of night—Detective Matt Jones finds himself at a crossroads.

Haunted by the specters of past cases, Jones is called back to the labyrinth of crime by a discovery so chilling it might freeze a lighted match.

A fifteen-year-old girl has been savagely murdered, her body buried under a tree in the woods.

Driven by the horror of the crime—the outrage—Jones and his partner, Denny Cabrera, burn through the evidence like wildfire.

The Girl Buried in the Woods was inspired by a true story—the murder of Connie Evans on her fifteenth birthday in the suburbs outside Philadelphia. Her body was found in a shallow grave beneath a grove of pine trees on a country road about a mile from my home. A desolate road between empty fields of grass that I used to ride my bicycle on every day. I was only a boy at the time of the murder, only ten years old. It took me a year to get the courage to get off my bike and step underneath those pine trees for a look at her grave. In my imagination, I can still see her hair strewn through the soil, just as it was described by the man with his dog who discovered her body. Connie Evans’s murder shook me to the bone and changed my life forever.

But each new clue reveals another layer of deceit. A turf war between an infamous mob figure and the powers of Wall Street. City officials cloaked in suits and secrets hiding in the shadows ready to strike.

Worse still, the number of murder victims soon matches the number of suspects, and a treacherous plot comes to light with everyone sharing the same goal.

Pin the murders on Matt Jones. He’s guilty. We know he's the one.

For Jones, it becomes a race against time. A harrowing journey into the heart of darkness, where the line between right and wrong blurs, and where the price paid for the truth could cost him his soul.

Author's Note

“Stunning emotional force. Ellis keeps everything in focus while building a staggering momentum.”
—Booklist Starred Review, City of Echoes

“City of Echoes is a Best-Book-of-the-Month.”
—Amazon

“A gleefully tense sequel. A persistently gripping thriller.”
—Kirkus Reviews, The Love Killings

“More thriller than mystery. The author works this to great effect. An impressive amount of suspense. A swift pace. Solid entertainment.”
—Kirkus Reviews, The Girl Buried in the Woods

“Riveting. A white-knuckle murder tale.”

—Kirkus Reviews, City of Stones

Praise for the Detective Matt Jones Thriller Series