Rinn’s Crossing

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. (Mar.)