Rinn's Crossing

January 27, 2020
In this gripping novel set in Alaska from Heath (Broken Angels), Kit Olinsky, a lobbyist for the Rainforest Conservation Council, gets into legal jeopardy after a maintenance man on a logging operation is killed by a booby-trapped generator, apparently an act of ecoterrorism. Despite Kit’s innocence, she’s falsely charged with the crime in what may be payback from her political opponents, whose agenda she has successfully thwarted. Those foes include a state senator who’s scheming to link passage of a subsistence amendment, which would enable the region’s Natives to live off the land, with other bills that restrict union activity and a woman’s right to an abortion. Besides exonerating herself, Kit must sort out a complicated love life, which includes an ex, Rinn Vaness, who has committed nonfatal acts of sabotage like spiking the engine of a front-end loader with sand. The political machinations are as suspenseful as the murder inquiry. Though Heath’s prose, plot, and characterizations aren’t at the level of a Paul Doiron, fans of Doiron’s Mike Bowditch series will be intrigued.

Starred review from April 1, 2020
Murder and mystery commingle with dirty politics in Heath's eco-thriller. Heath, the author of Broken Angels (2015), channels his experience as a former environmental protection lobbyist at the Alaska legislature into the creation of Kit Olinsky, a single mother of one who tries to protect that state's natural resources through her work with the Alaska Environmental Lobby. Kit finds herself in hot water after being indicted in the sudden death of a maintenance worker during an explosion at a logging site in the Tongass National Forest. The plot thickens when it appears that a conniving senator may have orchestrated the murder charge to distract Kit from meddling with a bill he supports that involves Native American land rights, which would further his political ambitions if passed. He will stop at nothing to get the bill through the legislature, including colluding with other lawmakers and attaching controversial riders to it, such as an abortion deterrent. Blackmail, threats, and coverups ensue as Kit attempts to absolve herself from the charge that she's leading a group of outlaw eco-terrorists while at the same time trying to keep her child from being removed by the state from her care. Additionally, Kit must deal with her attraction to her former lover, "mountain man" Rinn Vaness, whose need for revenge against the perpetrators of deforestation efforts leads to acts of vandalism bordering on eco-terrorism. Vaness might be able to help her, but in order to do it, he'd have to tangle with Dan Wakefield, Kit's friend and the CEO of the Tlikquan logging group that Rinn sabotaged only days earlier. The plot moves at a riveting pace, and fans of suspense fiction--particularly eco-thrillers--will find themselves pleasantly engaged with all the treacherous political and interpersonal machinations. Heath cleverly incorporates many contemporary hot-button issues into his narrative, such as Native Americans' attempts to claim overdue rights and the enduring fight between woodland conservationists and political and corporate entities bent on developing precious forestland for profit. Heath certainly knows his way around controversial land management issues and parlays this knowledge into a riveting page-turner. A thrilling, engrossing work of serpentine intrigue and crisp characterization with a conservationist conscience.

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