#23 [2026/CBR18] Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Heartwood (2025) by Amity Gaige is yet another book that I originally saw on NPR's Favorite Books List. It is about a woman who goes missing on the Appalachian Trail (AT) and the search to find her. Heartwood sounded like something I would like, so I got it from my library back in December. But I was about to do some solo backpacking and camping, and I wisely decided I didn't want to read a book about a missing hiker while I was sitting alone in my tent at night. Now it's about five months later, and I finally got around to it.

Gaige states at the end of this book that this story was partially inspired by the tragic story of Geraldine "Gerry" Largay, a 66-year-old woman who had been hiking the AT. When she went off the trail to go to the bathroom, the woods were so thick that she could not find her way back. She survived for 26 days in her tent before succumbing, writing to her family in her journal. Her body was found two years later.

In Heartwood, Valerie Gillis is a 42-year-old nurse who is hiking the AT as a way to take a break and reset after the heartbreak of being on the frontlines during COVID. She is alone, but her husband is supporting her trek, meeting her every few days with supplies and logistical support. Valerie is in Maine, but she doesn't show up to meet her husband as they'd agreed. He waits one day because she is often delayed and then goes for help.

Beverly is a Maine State Game Warden. She is 57 years old, and has been in charge of missing persons cases in the woods for a number of years. She is good at her job and has a great record. Beverly is fleshed out with details of what it's like to be the only woman in a male dominated field, her complicated relationship with her mother and sisters, and her determination to find Valerie.

Lena is a 76-year-old woman who is living in a Connecticut nursing home. She is immediately sucker punched by the news of the missing hiker because her own estranged daughter is the same age as Valerie and also a nurse. Lena's immediately takes it upon herself to find out everything she can about the case.

The search brings out hundreds of volunteers and wardens as they search for Valerie. But their confidence in finding her decreases as the days continue. It's possible that she's lost, but there's also the outside chance that she was the victim of foul play. There are a number of suspects, including Valerie's husband. Some hikers are also suspicious of Valerie's last hiking partner, who had already left the trail because of a sick father. In addition, there is a SERE campus that is right near where Valerie disappeared. SERE is military training for captured soldiers and it stands for: Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. Plenty of internet sleuths think the military is hiding something, and their poor relationship with the Maine State Game Wardens don't help.

I liked this book. It was well written and seemed to have a good understanding of what long distance hiking is like. The characters are developed and feel like real people. My wanting to know what happens kept me reading, although I was sometimes frustrated when I felt like we were finally getting somewhere and the book changes perspective. I had the hardest time understanding Lena. I wish I could have related to her more. 

Recommended.

#47 [2025/CBR17] The Wife Upstairs by Freida McFadden

I needed a book to listen to for my commute, and I needed it immediately. Somehow, The Wife Upstairs (2020) by Freida McFadden grabbed my eye when I searched available audio books at my library. I was not familiar with McFadden, but she has written a large number of successful thrillers, and she seems to have quite a following.

Sylvia Robinson is not in a good place in her life when the book begins. She has just lost her job after being unfairly accused of stealing, she is behind in her rent, and her ex has been harassing her with nonstop phone calls and unwanted visits. So, when Adam Barnett, a good-looking young writer, who lives in a beautiful suburban house outside of New York City offers her a job, she doesn't really have a choice but to accept.

Sylvia moves in and becomes the daytime caretaker of Victoria Barnett. Victoria is Adam's wife, and she has recently fallen down the stairs, leaving her with no control over one side of her body, bad facial scarring, and difficulty speaking. Before the accident, Victoria had been a nurse practitioner. She had been pregnant, and she lost the baby when she fell down the stairs.

Adam gives Sylvia Victoria's old laptop to use, which, conveniently, is where Victoria kept a diary of her life. Victoria tells Sylvia "avocado," which is what the diary is saved under because she wants Sylvia to read the diary. As Sylvia cares for Victoria, she continues to read her diary. It tells the story of a meet cute between Victoria and Adam in the emergency room in New York City. The two begin dating, and the relationship grows quickly. However, the closer they get, the more Adam shows his true colors, which includes jealous and controlling behavior. Victoria always forgives Adam, though, because he is also very good in a number of ways.

After Victoria and Adam are married, Adam buys the giant house way out in suburbia, far away from everything. He does not talk about it with Victoria beforehand. Things get worse and worse, with Adam taking away all of Victoria's credit cards and giving her a small, weekly allowance. She's not allowed to go to the gym or even any classes because he believes that she'll be meeting other men there.

By the time we get to the end of the novel, there are a couple of twists and turns in the plot. In the end everything is all explained.

I did not like this novel. It sounded like an exciting idea, but there were a lot of plot holes. I spent a lot of time frustrated while listening to this book. Sure, there were some interesting reveals, but when the plot feels so contrived, the reveals don't feel earned. Most obvious of all, I can't imagine anyone handing over their wife's laptop--with nothing deleted--to an employee that they'd just hired. Sylvia's job did not require a laptop; it's probably something she should have supplied for herself. Why couldn't Sylvia have found a hardcover diary or something? That would have been more believable.

This book also touched on my pet peeve because Sylvia's diary did not resemble how normal people write diaries. At least it only included information that Sylvia would know, but it was still written in great detail and with dialogue like a novel. And although it made the novel more suspenseful, it doesn't make sense that it would take Sylvia months to read that diary--especially when the information was obviously so important to her. Finally, I found it annoying that in a book that delves into controlling and abusive behavior, the author has the ex-boyfriend who has been harassing the protagonist turn into the savior. That's not usually how those things go.

In the end, I think these types of genre thrillers are not good book choices for me. If you look at the Amazon reviews, many people loved this book. Occasionally, I will enjoy them if they're very well written--like Gone Girl. But more often, I find them too unrealistic. This also happened when I read The Silent Patient, which I found on some kind of best of list and could not figure out why people liked it.

So, not for me, although plenty of people have enjoyed it if it's your thing.

#28 [2025/CBR17] Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

CBR17 Bingo: "White" - for the white writing on the cover

When I finish an audiobook now, I usually go straight to my library catalog to find my next one. I've gotten into the habit of searching for audiobooks that are available now--sorting by popularity. I still have to sift through some series and genre books, but it usually points me in the right direction. And that is how I found Wrong Place Wrong Time (2022) by Gillian McAllister. I was hoping this novel would keep my interest, but I didn't really know what to expect. And honestly, my expectations were not very high. Fortunately, this novel had interesting characters, a gripping mystery, and an original way of playing with time travel within the novel. I ended up getting more out of it than I expected.

The book begins with Jen waiting for her 18-year-old-son, Todd, to come home on Halloween. She watches him come towards the house, and is then horrified when she sees her son turn and stab another man to death. She watches her son get arrested, and she and her husband go to the police station, but they are turned away without even being able to see him.

The next morning Jen wakes up with her life in tatters. But instead of continuing to live in the nightmare her life had turned into, she has woken up and it is the day before Halloween. Her son has not killed anyone, and she now has a chance to figure out what happened and possibly prevent it.

It turns out that Jen's traveling backwards through time is not entirely linear. Eventually, she does not go back one day at a time, but can leap back weeks, months, or even years. She hypothesizes that she goes back to any time that is important for her understanding of what her son did. Because Jen is always traveling backwards, her actions don't have any long-term consequences. Whatever she did that day, will be erased when she wakes up the next morning. It definitely changes your perspective. But it comes with its challenges as well. She can't accomplish anything that takes more than a day. A person can't send her a report "tomorrow" because Jen is not getting to tomorrow. In addition, if Jen is able to convince someone what's happening to her, she has to go and do it all again the next day when she goes backwards in time again.

Wrong Place Wrong Time certainly explores the question of how much we really know about the people we love. Sure, Todd had been acting more distant these past couple of months, but Jen just chalked that up to normal teenage angst. It was only with hindsight that she could see what she had been missing. The same thing happened with her husband. Jen thought she knew everything about him, but it turns out that she had been missing a lot.

In the end, I was impressed with Wrong Place Wrong Time. I thought it was a good story, originally told, The time travel aspects, and the careful reveal of what was going on was well done. I liked the characters, and felt like they had real, earned emotion. This one was a bit of a happy surprise, but it probably helped that I came in with no expectations.

#14 [2022/CBR14] Mercy by David Baldacci

My soon-to-be father-in-law recommended that I read Mercy (2021) by David Baldacci. I'd never heard of the book or author, but it sounded interesting enough. I was also curious what kind of book my fiancé's father would think I would like. To be fair, I was told that this was the fourth book in the Atlee Pine series, and I should read the other three books first. I did not, but I was also told that the fourth book is the best one. I decided that reading all four books was too big of a commitment. Although I did miss some details in the ongoing story, I don't regret my decision.

Initially, I don't think I was expecting too much, which is why I listened to Mercy on audiobook. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I found the novel well written and entertaining. Sure, Baldacci's world includes an unnatural plethora of Amazonian women, but it's cool that they can kick some ass. And sure, the bad luck those poor sisters have is astounding, but it's fiction and Baldacci keeps the pages turning.

Atlee (Lee) Pine is an FBI agent, and she has been the star of the previous three books where lots of stuff happened that I don't know about. When Atlee Pine was only six years old, a man came into her home, kidnapped her twin sister, Mercy, and tried to kill Lee. Lee has been searching for her sister ever since, and she finally has a lead that revealed where she was held captive and gives Lee hope that she may still be alive. (I'm assuming this information was gathered in the last book). 

Lee and her companion, Carol Blum--a maternal assistant, start following the trail, interviewing people who may have seen Mercy. The book switches back and forth between Lee and Mercy's point of views, so the reader knows where Mercy is even as Lee searches for her.

I thought this would be the plot of the book, but Baldacci throws in a rather large, unexpected wrinkle to their struggles. Was it farfetched? Definitely. But did it keep my interest? Definitely. If anything Baldacci kept his book grounded through the real emotions of his characters, which felt believable. On the other hand, Lee would have been kicked out of the FBI and probably arrested for everything she did while searching for her sister. Just because she has a noble cause doesn't mean she's immune to the law. I also found part of the final fight scene a little unnecessary and unsupported. However, on the whole, it was a positive experience.