Somewhere in Maine, deep in the woods near the Appalachian Trail, Valerie Gillis goes missing. She is 42 and an experienced hiker that was traveling the last 200 miles of her journey solo. Her husband patiently waited at their designated location for supplies and Valerie never showed up. The State Game Warden is notified and within hours a full fledge search and rescue is underway. Every hour of every day changes the possibility of finding Valerie alive. Beverly is the head warden and as a female she has always had to be tougher and better than the rest. But she also has a big heart and this search becomes personal. Bev deeply feels for the grieving parents and the many teams that she has put together who have been working around the clock. As the days unfold she struggles to keep faith that they will be successful, it seems as if Valerie has vanished. Lena, an aging forager (person who collects edible plants) has spent her life as a scientist and is painfully bored in her retirement home. Lena begins to put the pieces together as she follows the story of the missing hiker. Although Lena essentially keeps to herself she has a way of understanding nature and people better than most. Slow burn mystery filled with the beauty of the AT, the people who hike it and those who protect it.

An experienced hiker, Valerie, has mysteriously disappeared on an Appalachian Trail in Maine. A highly trained game warden, Beverly, has taken on her case and won’t stop until she’s found. Most hikers are found within a 2-3 day time frame, but Valerie must be deep in the wilderness because it’s taking longer than expected. The chances of survival dwindle down with each passing day. Will they find her in time?

This book read like a true crime novel which I loved! We had Beverly that exhausted her efforts in finding Valerie, the interviews with those that hiked along side her, news clippings that gave updates on the search, and Valerie’s diary entries that kept us hopeful for her survival.

This would’ve been a five star read for me, but Lena bumped my rating down. I know she had one significant part in the story, but did we have to spend so much time on her character because I sped past her chapters.

Overall, this wilderness suspense novel was impossible to put down and I can’t wait to read the author’s next book!

HEARTWOOD is a straight forward mystery: a search for a missing hiker. The intriguing part of the book is it offers three viewpoints of the search; three different women become fully engaged in this plot. And all three women experience a sort of mourning as the book progresses. The hiker is a nurse trying to recover from the hell of the Pandemic, and the many losses she confronted. The head of the search is a woman with a near perfect record of finding lost hikers, who realizes she has other issues to attend to, unrelated to her job. And finally, an elderly woman in a nursing home wonders if the lost hiker is her estranged daughter. This is a very slow moving book that challenges readers more comfortable with a quicker pace. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I enjoyed Heartwood by Amity Gage. I don't consider it a thriller as it may have been described in some places. More of a literary fiction with a bit of a mystery. The story focuses on Valerie, a person everyone seems to love, who disappears while hiking the Appalachian Trail. It takes place after the Covid pandemic, but isn't the focus of the story. It's a moment in time that the reader can connect with and commiserate with the FMC to better understand her feelings and struggles.

The story has multiple POV from the different characters who know her or are involved in searching for her. There are parts of the story with journal entries from Valerie telling her POV and showing her mindset during the ordeal leading the reader to become more invested and curious as to her outcome. Why did Valerie take on this enormous painstaking goal of hiking 2,000 miles? This was my first book by Amity Gage and I enjoyed it and the stories of the secondary characters as well! There was a lot of reflection from the various characters regarding their life and choices made.

The Appalachian Mountains are ancient — as John Denver sang, older than the trees. Back when the only landform was Pangea, the Appalachians were part of what is now Scotland. It’s no wonder European settlers found their way here, this land is ancestral, they knew it in their bones and it called them home. I think that’s so haunting and beautiful.

HEARTWOOD was a book I wanted to read the moment I first heard of it. On its surface, it’s about a search for a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail. Just 200 miles from the end in Maine, Valerie vanished. Her hiking partner had to quit due to a family emergency and she never checked in with her husband at a meeting point. Even an experienced hiker could run into trouble alone in the woods: did she injure herself? Is she lost?

Lieutenant Beverly, the Maine State Game Warden, is heading the search, well aware time is crucial. Best case scenario: Valerie got turned around and she’ll find her way back to the trail and a shelter. As the hours turn into days — and the relentless rain washes away any scent or shoe prints — the best case scenario is looking less likely and optimism is running thin.

Lena is an elderly woman in an assisted living community in Connecticut. She spends her days chatting with a foraging group on Reddit, one member she’s especially close to. It’s through his posts and chats she comes to learn about the missing hiker and finds herself invested in the case.

While HEARTWOOD sounds like a thriller, it’s very much a mother/daughter story. Bev’s mother is dying and she’s not sure if she should go home; Lena’s estranged daughter rejects any attempt at communication; alone in the woods, Valerie writes letters to her mother.

I loved this. Like THE GOD OF THE WOODS, it’s a slow burn, quiet story. Much more of a literary mystery than edge-of-your-seat thriller. This was a book I carried around with me throughout the house, cooking with one hand while reading with the other. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading and counted down the hours until I could pick it up again. This is my introduction to Gaige’s work — but it won’t be my last!

I enjoyed this a lot. I was very engaged from page one. with our missing female hitchhiker on the Appalachian Trail. I felt the hopelessness as the search went on day after helpless day. It was an interesting twist with the senior woman who was chatting online with the individual that might prove a connection to our missing hiker.

Thank you @simonbooks #SimonBooksBuddy for the gifted e-arc and @simon.audio for the audiobook.

This addictive, slow-burn missing person mystery was filled with beautiful prose and poignant storytelling. I loved the multi-POV, and I highly recommend the audiobook for full cast narration.

Amity Gaige packs this suspense-filled story with heartfelt introspection. This is a story that will stick with me.

Read if you enjoy:
🥾 hiking, nature
🏕️ women’s fiction
🥾 stories of self-discovery and resilience
🏕️ multi-pov and full cast narration
🥾 suspenseful, gripping writing
🏕️ mixed media storytelling and short chapters

My rating: 4.5⭐️

I have read two of Amity Gaige's previous books, Schroeder and Sea Wife, and just finished this, her latest. Each has had me fully invested in the characters and very curious to see where the story will take us. What's particularly impressive is how very different from each other the plots are. I think this is her best, and I loved the three female points of view. Ultimately, this is the story of mothers and daughters, against the backdrop of the search for a missing AT hiker:

Cleverly constructed and engrossing tale about a woman who goes missing while hiking the Appalachian Trail. It’s more complicated than a simple search and rescue saga, with memorable characters and a whole lot of heart. I love Amity Gaige and she does not disappoint here. I absolutely could not put it down!

A sincere thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of this novel.

This is a very mixed review. I absolutely loved all three of our main characters, and I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of their POVs interspersed with emails and conversations. It helped keep the pace steady and moving forward. The Maine wilderness was also a main character in a way (pun semi-intended).

But there were parts of this that were so largely irrelevant that it pulled me out of the story. Lena’s presence in this book is largely unnecessary - we don’t spend as much time with her as we do Bev & Valerie but we spent a good amount of time with her. It felt almost like padding an essay to reach a word count. The writing was spectacular of course - but some of the irrelevant details could’ve been tied in more.

Thank you to NetGalley, Amity Gage, and Simon & Schuester for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

As I read Amity Gaige's Heartwood, I was reminded of Cheryl Strayed's Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. It seemed to me that none of these people had sufficiently prepared for the ambitious undertaking of walking hundreds or thousands of miles through rugged and unknown terrain. Heartwood is a fictional account of a middle-aged nurse who was burned out from the Covid pandemic when she set out on the Appalachian Trail. When she vanishes before reaching her final destination, an extensive search ensues. Heading up the search effort is a female Maine State Game Warden. Seventy-six-year-old Lena also becomes obsessed with the case and does some detective work on her computer from her retirement home in Connecticut. All three of these women spend a lot of time reflecting on mother-daughter relationships throughout the story. Thanks to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster and the author for a copy to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Amity Gaige, and Simon & Schuster for the eARC. This is a heartbreaking yet deeply invigorating story—a moving exploration of loneliness, perseverance, and the journey toward self-discovery. Beautifully written and emotionally resonant, it leaves a lasting impression.

Heartwood
by: Amity Gaige
Simon & Schuster
pub date: 04/01/25
Literary Fiction/Mystery & Thriller/Women's Fiction

Heartwood is the April 2025 selection for Read with Jenna.
I was drawn to the book for its plot about missing Appalachian Trail hiker Valerie Gillis and the search and rescue held in Maine.

The book is written with beautiful prose and narrative, pulling it into the literary fiction genre, layered with the suspense component. Gaige uses multiple points of view, including that of Beverly, the Maine State Game Warden serving as lead investigator. Adding even more mystery and depth is Lena, who lives in a Connecticut retirement community and is following the case.

I often read memoirs about long distance hiking, so I was captivated by this fictional story, as well. I highly recommend it to those who love outdoor adventures, suspense, and compelling writing.

I received a complimentary advance reader's copy from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster. My review is my own.

Just finished Heartwood and WOW—this one will absolutely stay with me.

Set deep in the remote Maine wilderness, this literary suspense novel follows three unforgettable women whose lives collide in unexpected ways. Valerie, an experienced hiker just 200 miles shy of completing the Appalachian Trail, vanishes without a trace. Alone in the wild, she survives the brutal elements and her own haunting thoughts by writing emotional, poetic letters to her mother. Meanwhile, Beverly, a no-nonsense Maine State Game Warden, leads the search with a kind of quiet intensity that had me rooting for her the whole way. And then there’s Lena—a 76-year-old birdwatcher with a sharp eye and sharper instincts—who becomes unexpectedly entangled in the mystery from afar.

The story alternates between their perspectives, slowly unraveling a deeper, more mystery that suggests Valerie’s disappearance wasn’t just a tragic accident. And let me just say: it’s a slow burn in the best way. Think emotional depth meets page-turning suspense.

If you loved Wild by Cheryl Strayed, this one’s for you. It explores the ripple effects of Covid, the complexity of mother-daughter relationships, and how deeply our lives can intertwine—even with strangers. Despite the layered narrative, it never felt overwhelming. It just worked. And the writing? Beautiful. Gorgeously atmospheric and emotionally resonant.

Highly recommend picking this one up—I’m still thinking about it. Heartwood is out now and deserves a spot on your TBR!

Heartwood by amity gaige deserves every bit of the buzz it is receiving this spring. It is a beautifully written literary “mystery” in the vein of Peter heller and Mare of east town.. an experienced hiker, Valerie, goes missing on a hike in the Appalachian trails and captures the attention of everyone. Beverly, the Maine state game warden, is leading the investigation for her and is determined to find her. Meanwhile, Lena, a 67 year old bird watcher estranged from her family joins an online community searching for her and santos, Valerie’s hiking partner, gives interviews giving insight into her hiking patterns and her marriage. Interspersed are Valerie’s letters to her mom from the woods giving readers clues as to her whereabouts.

Beautifully written, moving, a strong sense of setting and character-this is deserving of the attention it is getting. I loved it.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. Part thriller, part mystery, part relationship exploration drama. I read it so quickly because I just couldn't wait to find out what happened, and I found myself rooting for all three of the main female characters, because their success hinged on each other without any of them even knowing it. That is how the universe works, and when people are brave and speak up, they can affect change from miles and miles away.

A hiker goes missing off the Appalachian Trail...

...and searchers have few clues to go on.

Valerie Gillis, a 42 year old Maryland nurse, is hiking the Appalachian Trail and has made it all the way to Maine. Along the way she has connected with others pursuing the same journey, a "tramily" of people all searching for something with their efforts. Her husband Gregory is supporting her on her trek, driving from spot to spot to connect with her periodically, and it is Gregory who raises the alarm when she fails to meet him at a prearranged area in order to re-supply. Valerie has, for all intents and purposes, vanished and unfortunately Maine is pretty much the worst area on the Appalachian Trail in which to get lost given its remote and densely forested terrain. Lieutenant Beverly Miller is the Maine State Game Warden assigned to lead the search effort for Valerie; she has been finding lost people in the woods for thirty years and has an impressive record of finding them. WIth her team of professional and volunteer searchers she takes what little information they have to determine the most likely areas in which to search, fully aware that the first few days are critical and growing increasingly frustrated when lead after lead turns up nothing. The case has attracted media attention, and it catches the ear of Lena, a 76 year old resident in a Connecticut retirement community whose mobility is quite limited but whose curiosity and attentive nature are formidable. Her communication with an online acquaintance provides her with paths of research to pursue which she hopes might contribute to a successful resolution. What happened to Valerie? Is she lost, or is her disappearance indicative of something more sinister? Can even the best and most dedicated searchers in an area where looking for lost people is a frequent occurrence find Valerie, and if they do will she still be alive?
Heartwood is a literary tale with a mystery threaded through its narrative. It is a character-driven story of introspection, the bond between mothers ad daughters, and the instinct to survive. The three main characters are all female: Valerie, the disillusioned nurse whom the reader gets to know primarily through the letters she is writing to her mother while she tries to survive in the wilderness; Lt Bev, dedicated to her job and struggling with some issues in her personal life; and Lena, highly intelligent but someone who has never fit in well with others and whose estrangement from her own daughter, the same age and in the same profession as Valerie, is the impetus for her remote involvement in the case. The writing is amazingly powerful and descriptive, the wilderness setting vividly detailed, and the family ties and other relationships fully developed and realistic. The narrative uses a variety of formats....letters from Valerie to her mother, interviews with people who interacted with her along the AT, and more....to reveal the challenges of searching for those who are lost, the bonds and losses each character experiences, and the tension inherent to the circumstances in which these three women find themselves. There were places where I thought the plot got a bit bogged down, but both the overall premise and the evocative prose kept me reading till the end. Readers of authors like Louise Erdrich, Angie Kim and Julia Glass might find this a novel to their liking; as would those who like a literary novel with a dash of mystery. My thanks to NetGalley and SImon & Schuster for allowing me access to a copy of Heartwood in exchange for my honest review.

Heartwood focuses on the story of the disappearance of 42-year old, Valerie Gillis, just as she was close to completing her journey hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, but it's honestly so much more than that.

This story features a few different perspectives, as well as cleverly-incorporated mixed media elements. Initially, I wasn't sure how all of the perspectives were going to ultimately blend together, but Gaige did an incredible job with her pacing and reveals. I found myself equally invested in each perspective, which is rare, and enjoyed how they eventually merged.

The suspense was great, the inclusion of nature was beautiful, and the exploration of the personal journeys was top notch. I felt so immersed.
My recommendation would go into this knowing as little as possible. I feel like it's one of those stories best served if you just experience it exactly as the author wants you to. I feel like, though this story had its intense moments, and moments when I feared for particular characters, I was left with such an overriding feeling of hope.

It was really quite lovely. A great reading experience.

I did feel an extra special connection with it as it is set in my home state, and in areas where I have had the pleasure of spending a lot of time, including on the trails. I think Gaige did a great job with the portrayal of the Maine State Game Wardens, having known a few of them in my own life. I think that's such an amazing profession to feature in a novel like this. I appreciated that aspect.

Thank you to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm so happy that I made time for this book. If you love stories of survival, hiking stories or stories that explore nature, both human and the natural world, I highly recommend picking this up!

A big thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of Heartwood by Amity Gage in exchange for my honest review.

Heartwood by Amity Gage was a winner for me! This book had everything I love in my reading life. Let’s start with the basics. Heartwood is an intriguing one-word title accompanied by a beautiful and compelling cover, which both fit the story perfectly. The characters are quirky, but flawed, and easy to root for, or at least give you a reason to open your heart and try to understand them better. Add in a missing person deep within the atmospheric and iconic Appalachian Trail, slow-burn literary suspense, and a bit of a police procedural – well, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

But there’s more to Heartwood than all of those elements just mentioned. There are complex mother-daughter relationships to be explored, a subtle commentary of how the COVID pandemic challenged and changed us, our innate drive for survival, and the difference between being alone in the world, being lonely, and finding our people.

Heartwood is told from multiple POVs, and within a multi-media format, including epistolary, interviews, Reddit threads, and tip-line queries. I typically love multi-media structure and Heartwood was no exception. While moving from POV to POV occasionally felt jarring, the end result, which weaved in each character’s contributions to the story, made Heartwood a success for me.

Readers who love character-driven literary suspense and a mystery to puzzle over, with an outdoor setting which is as much a character as the human characters in the story, should give Heartwood a try. And for the dog lovers out there, you will find a wonderful dog scene in Heartwood, which for this reader, sealed the deal. I will eagerly read more from Amity Gage.

Thanks to @simonbooks @simonandschuster @netgalley for my advance e copy

42 year old nurse, Valerie Gillis goes missing as she hikes the Appalachian Trail.
The resulting search and rescue mission takes on a whole life of its own.

I loved reading the viewpoints of:
Beverly, the Maine Game Warden in charge of the search
76 year old Lena bird watcher in Connecticut who’s in online communication with someone also on the hiking trail
Fellow hikers who give their interviews and input on their interactions and last sightings of Valerie
“Letters” written by Valerie to her mother, noting her feelings and memories of growing up and their mother/daughter relationship

The Read with Jenna book pick for April 🌷