With Detective Matt Jones on medical leave after hunting down a brutal serial killer on the East Coast in The Love Killings, his supervisor from Hollywood Homicide makes a late-night visit. A body has been found buried in a remote park high above Los Angeles. Because LAPD resources are maxed out, Jones is asked to come off leave and work the case. Unfortunately, he makes a quick discovery, and it's grim. The murder victim is a fifteen-year-old girl.

T H E  G I R L   B U R I E D   I N   T H E   W O O D S

A Detective Matt Jones Thriller, Book 3


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.

Driven by the horror of the crime, Jones and his partner, Denny Cabrera, burn through the investigation like a wildfire. But as they turn over clue after clue, nothing adds up until they make an even more gruesome discovery.

"With The Girl Buried in the Woods, Robert Ellis delivers his most terrifying thriller yet. Filled with fully realized characters, and a story inspired by a real-life murder Ellis experienced as a ten-year-old boy, this spine-tingling read feels like a ride on a roller coaster plunging through the void with no brakes. Once again Robert Ellis demonstrates his masterful touch as a storyteller in The Girl Buried in the Woods."

There’s another dead body out there, and now, no one is safe—especially Jones, who uncovers evidence that the murders may be linked to a turf war between an infamous mob figure and the power of Wall Street. But even worse, the big shots in city government are in on it, too. One suspect after the next shares the same goal—to pin the murders on Matt Jones and watch him run for his life.

From the Editors ...

Author's Note ...

"With an early focus on the possible murders, Ellis' (The Love Killings, etc.) latest series entry is more thriller than mystery. The author works this to great effect as the story reveals the burden of unearthing evidence. Ellis generates an impressive amount of suspense. Solid entertainment."

From Kirkus Reviews ...

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