Heartwood by Amity Gaige – Read with Jenna

A Read with Jenna Pick

Step inside from the salt air and discover this season’s most captivating literary thriller. Heartwood by Amity Gaige has earned extraordinary praise—The Boston Globe calls it “the best thriller of 2025,” while The Washington Post declares it “genius.” This is the kind of book that keeps you turning pages long after you meant to put it down.

When experienced hiker Valerie Gillis vanishes 200 miles from the end of the Appalachian Trail in the Maine woods, three compelling voices emerge. There’s Valerie herself, writing fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the wilderness. Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden leading the ground search. And Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher who becomes an unlikely armchair detective from her Connecticut retirement community.

What unfolds is far more than a search and rescue story. As these narratives weave together, a puzzle emerges—and Valerie’s disappearance may not be what it seems. Gaige has crafted what Elin Hilderbrand calls “a literary thriller of the highest order,” one that Real Simple deems “unputdownable.”

At its heart, this is a novel about the many ways we get lost and how we find our way back—to ourselves, to each other, to hope. It’s a gem that manages to be both suspenseful and soul-mending, the perfect companion for a rainy afternoon curled up in your favorite reading spot.

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