My streak of excellent reading continues! Heartwood by Amity Gaige is a novel about a woman in her early 40s who disappears in Maine while hiking the Appalachian Trail. The narration cycles between Valerie, the missing hiker, and Lt. Bev, the warden assigned to help search for her, and Lena, an older woman living in a Connecticut retirement community who tries to help the search from a distance. Heartwood is very suspenseful – will Valerie be found before it’s too late? – but it’s also a character-driven story about three women at crossroads in their lives. I really enjoyed this one. The language is beautiful, and Gaige does a fantastic job depicting both the rugged Maine scenery and the rhythms and challenges of hiking the AT. She also deftly explores relationships and how sometimes people just find themselves stuck. I had a hard time putting this one down!