Review: A Murder in Zion by Nicole Maggi

Nicole Maggi’s A Murder in Zion is the first book in her National Park Mystery series, following Special Agent Emmeline Helliwell of the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch as she investigates the murder of a childhood friend in the Narrows of Zion National Park. Equal parts family drama and whodunit, it is set against the stunning and unforgiving landscape of southern Utah. Check out my thoughts below!

A Murder in Zion (National Park Mystery #1)

by Nicole Maggi
on March 4, 2025
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Beautiful views, deadly encounters

Grief-stricken over her mother' s death and bruised by her failure on her most recent case, Emmeline Helliwell returns to her Utah hometown to heal, regroup, and reconnect with her estranged sister. A special agent with the National Park Service, Emme is determined to turn in her badge and take over her mother' s bakery for a much quieter life . . . until the body of a childhood friend turns up in the Narrows of Zion National Park.

Emme is called in to investigate the death, and the case is too personal for her to turn down. Once the death is ruled a murder, the seemingly simple investigation turns treacherous as clues leading to a dangerous religious cult grow too glaring to ignore.

The pressure intensifies when bodies start to pile up. Emme has to track down the killer before they take more lives, all while juggling a rocky relationship with her sister as they sort through their late mother' s estate.

The beauty of Zion National Park is breathtaking, but it may hide sordid secrets in its depths.

Review

A Murder in Zion is the kind of mystery that uses its setting the way good mysteries should, not as backdrop but as an active presence in the story. Zion National Park is known to be breathtaking and it is also isolating and dangerous, and Nicole understands that both things are true at the same time. Special Agent Emme Helliwell returns to her Utah hometown to grieve her mother and reconsider her career, and then a body turns up in the Narrows and she cannot stay away. The mystery is solid and keeps moving, but what I kept coming back to was the way the park itself felt like a character, beautiful and indifferent to what humans do inside it.

Reading this while our national parks are actively under threat, with funding being cut and protections being rolled back, gave the whole thing an extra layer of weight I did not expect. These places are not guaranteed. Nicole writes about Zion with the kind of love that comes from someone who actually knows it, and that matters more right now than it would have a few years ago.

The family dynamics between Emme and her estranged sister Addie are genuinely good. It would have been easy to let the personal stuff take over or to let the investigation swallow it, but Nicole keeps both threads tight and neither one feels like filler. Emme is a protagonist worth spending a series with, complicated enough to be interesting and grounded enough to root for.

The next book, Lost in Yellowstone, is out May 5th, and based on the description, a human foot ejected from a geyser is the inciting event, which tells you everything you need to know about whether Nicole is going to keep things interesting. I already preordered!