The Trail: Book Two of The Husband Experiment

The first book was about finding the story. The Trail is about what it cost to find her. It is the second book of The Husband Experiment, based on a true story, and free to read.

What The Trail is about

This book follows the search itself, and the people I met along it.

It moves through three cities. There is a journalist who spent four years on the same woman and never published a word, and who stopped the day she finally met her. There is a man in a hotel bar who said he was her cousin, and whose every detail turned out to be wrong. There is a room with forty books in three languages, one sentence underlined seven times, and twenty minutes to stand in it without touching anything.

And there is a last meeting, set for a Thursday, that she didn't come to.

Why The Trail matters in the series

The Trail is where the series turns. In Before, I am following a story. In The Trail, I find out I am not the only one following it. That changes what the search means, and what the rules in Five Rules are worth.

Read Before first, because The Trail begins where it ends. The full order is in the series reading guide.

What it means to search for someone

Most journalism is about finding facts. This search was about finding a person who did not want to be found, and that changes the work. Every source has their own version of her, and every version says as much about the person telling it as about her.

The journalist who spent four years on her taught me that more than anyone. She had gathered more than I ever would and published none of it. When I asked why, her answer is in the book, and it is the reason I almost stopped too.

The Trail is where the search stops being a story and starts to cost something. It is also where I first had to ask whether finding her was the right thing to do, a question I still haven't fully answered.

Length and format

The Trail is 27 pages, about 2,600 words, roughly a fifteen-minute read. It is a PDF that works on any device. It is free here on noravellick.com and on Amazon Kindle, and it is written for readers 18 and over.

Where it came from

Much of The Trail is about what people claim a woman wants, and how often they are wrong. I first wrote about that on The Record, in What Papi Means and The Provider Problem. If you want to know which role you take when you want someone, try the quiz. All my books are together on the books page.

Questions people ask

Do I need to read Before before The Trail?

Yes. The Trail begins where Before ends, and the search makes more sense in order: Before, The Trail, then Five Rules.

Is The Trail free?

Yes. It is free on noravellick.com and also free on Amazon Kindle.

How long is The Trail?

27 pages, about 2,600 words, roughly fifteen minutes of reading.

What happens in The Trail?

Nora Vellick follows the search through three cities, meets people who knew the woman or claimed to, and waits for a final meeting on a Thursday that never happens.

Can I read The Trail on Kindle?

Yes. The Trail is free on Amazon Kindle as well as on noravellick.com, where it comes as a PDF for any device.