Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate

aired the week of July 28, 2025

Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate is set in the Winding Stair Mountain of southeastern Oklahoma.  Following two timelines the reader gets the story from eleven year old Olive Augusta Peele who along with her younger Choctaw sister are trying to hide from their lecherous stepfather in 1909.  Fast forward to 1990 where National Park Service Ranger Valerie Boren-Odell is working to get a new park ready for the grand opening when human remains are discovered in a cave within the park.  As Valerie learns more about the area's past and the plight of the elf children who were abandoned to the woods she becomes convinced someone is trying to hide the past and sabotage the park's grand opening.  Recommended for fans of Jess Montgomery and Amanda Skenandore.  For more information on the fate of Native Americans in Oklahoma pick up David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon.