Lt. Bev is the Maine State Game Warden who is leading the investigation into Valerie’s disappearance. She is intensely dedicated to her work and does it at the cost of her personal life. She has had to deal with misogyny, aggression and dismissal, but rather than be marginalized, she has worked hard and succeeded in a male-dominated field.
Lena Kucharski is a seventy-six-year-old, living in a retirement community. She loves science and is a reader, a forager and a loner with an estranged daughter. Lena gets interested in the case of the lost hiker and becomes a helpful cyber sleuth. I enjoyed reading the book. What I enjoyed most was the visceral description of the Appalachian trail such as shelters on the way where hikers leave notes and updates for other hikers, and small towns on the route where hikers do laundry and eat massive amounts of food. I relished learning about the trail culture, the trail names of hikers, their camaraderie and their distinct vocabulary. Beautifully described by Gaige is the Maine wilderness with its canopies of trees and mossy floors, which make a perfect haven for birds and a place for humans to get lost in. Heartwood is in the Coffman collection and is shelved in the Mystery section under Gaige. The writing is beautiful, and the story is more than a mystery. It is a tale about survival, connection and self-discovery.
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