Review of Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Amity Gaige's Appalachian Trail-set novel offers several of my favorite elements: a Maine setting, a missing-person storyline, an unforgiving wilderness, and a strong woman succeeding in a male-dominated field. This mystery hit the spot for me.

But the nonbeliever is in a bind, because without God, who forgives? Human beings are pretty unforgiving. The law certainly isn’t forgiving. Forgiveness needs a messenger.

Amity Gaige's Heartwood offers the story of Beverly, a dedicated Maine State Game Warden who has fought for years for an amount of respect to match her commitment and ability, and Valerie, an Appalachian Trail hiker who has gone missing 200 miles from her final destination.

Beverly is known to be able to find missing persons, and she is set upon finding Valerie. But search parties, flyovers, and rescue dogs come up empty day after day.

The reader is privy to Valerie's poignant letters to her mother as she struggles to survive in the wild, and witness to 76-year-old, wheelchair-bound Lena's retirement-community existence and her rigid existence after a lifetime of pain.

Lena, Valerie, and Bev are inexorably connected, and Valerie's survival depends upon the other two women's bravery and relentlessness. Meanwhile, the novel explores imperfect parenting, compounding mistakes by clinging to fear or regret, and against-the-odds second chances. Forgiveness is a concept that emerges again and again here.

I loved the Appalachian Trail adventure and bonding, the in-charge warden who has worked hard and earned her place, and the behind-the-scenes gears that begin to turn and are instrumental in solving the mystery at hand.

I love a Maine setting, a missing-persons story, and a tale of brave women thriving in a traditionally male career. This story is so intriguing, I had trouble putting it down.

More by Amity Gaige

Amity Gaige is also the author of O My Darling, The Folded World, Schroder, and Sea Wife.

Check out the titles at the links here for more missing person stories and for more books set in Maine.