Book review: Heartwood by Amity Gaige
Genre: Mystery
Release date: April 1, 2025
Goodreads rating: 4
My rating: 4
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If you love fictional books inspired by real events, Heartwood by Amity Gaige is one to add to your TBR.
In this book, we follow nurse Valerie Gillis, a 42-year-old hiker who is determined to hike the Appalachian trail, one of the longest trails in the US Hiking. It is meant to be a journey of determination and self-discovery but unexpectedly, three months into her journey, she goes missing and we follow the search to find her.
The story is shared from multiple points of view: Valerie herself, as she writes letters to her mother explaining her situation. Lieutenant Beverly, the State Warden leading the search, and Lena, 76-year-old living in assisted care who is following the news story from afar and getting caught up in the online conspiracy theories. Gaige also injects news clips to share the public view of the case which I found added an interesting perspective.
It’s a gentle mystery: did her husband from whom she has been growing distant do it? Could it have been one of the fellow hikers that she crossed? Or did Valerie reach her own physical or mental breaking point? I also enjoyed the writing style and short chapters. It was an easy book to pick up in between daily tasks.
I’ll share that Bev’s perspective was my favourite. Through her, I feel I got to discover the natural setting of the Appalachian trail (which I personally was not very familiar with) and gain inside knowledge about the logistics of a search-and-rescue mission. Gaige does a good job immersing us in the setting.
I recommend this book, which was also selected to be a monthly Read with Jenna book club selection.