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Nature & the Environment

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Buried Embers

by Chris Kahn

Calla Rowe knows fire. She is a long-time, accomplished investigator for ATF, but PTSD after the terrible death in a fire of her partner has forced her to retire. Trying to stay under the radar, in Pinecrest OR, she is also trying to work through her unspeakable fear and guilt, while the method of the fire that caused her trauma works itself in the back of her brain. She doesn’t accept that it was an accident. The local sheriff seeks her help in solving a wildfire, and she reluctantly agrees, bringing in her last professional contact, an FBI friend. Calla is a heroine like few others. Strong and indominable, but also with a need to know that is overwhelming. She does find the truth in the end, but at what cost to herself? The final third of the book will keep you on the edge of your chair, with the hint at the end of more to come. An accomplished thrill ride from a strong author.—Danise Hoover

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Review

The Wild Beneath

by Dodie Ownes

Book of the Week June 25, 2026

A massive tsunami hits the Pacific Northwest and sweeps away Annie’s mother and father Maya and Aiden, and there’s not much left of Hale’s Landing, where she is sheltering with her grandmother Ruth. Then Annie discovers a man on the beach, about her age, with slimy, pale skin and strange eyes. As she and her aunt nurse Walker back to health, more questions than answers come up about him, making the townspeople suspicious. Moving back and forth in time from when Aiden first met Maya to the present to time in between, readers will find the lives of of Hale’s Landing inhabitants unfolding across the pages—Annie’s best friend and first love, Evan Hale, trapped by his father Isaac’s logging business; Uncle Henry, gruff and loving; and the chorus, locals who mistrusted Maya even before she and Aiden made the decision to live full-time on a sailboat. Annie can no longer deny that the sea calls her, as it did her mother, and Walker is somehow part of that—but how, and why? What is the connection she is missing? And can Hale’s Landing survive without the logging business that built it? Anderson spins an enchanting and exhilarating tale that will especially appeal to those who love everything about our waters and forests and all that dwell in and around them.—Dodie Ownes

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Review

The Marsh Queen

by Henrietta Thornton

Swampy water almost seeps from the pages of this Everglades-set literary debut. Visiting the area to help her sick mother and overburdened brother, Loni Murrow has taken what she thinks will be a short leave of absence from her job as a bird artist at the Smithsonian. But from the moment she arrives and finds her family cleaning out her mother’s hoarded house, it’s clear the visit won’t be fleeting. Beneath her reluctance to be around family is a thicket of secrets surrounding the decades old death of her father, a fish-and-game warden killed in the line of duty. At the time, Loni overheard her father’s colleague saying it might have been a suicide. The family carefully avoids the matter, but Loni can’t let the silence continue when she finds in her mother’s belongings a letter from a mysterious Henrietta, who says she has something to reveal. Loni works on her bird illustrations while she’s in Florida, and enchanting descriptions of wildlife and a budding romance entwine with the family mystery to create a relaxing (until it gets very intense) tale with a satisfyingly earthy taste. Readers who enjoyed Heather MacDonald’s H is for Hawk are a good audience for Hartman’s first novel.

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