The Tracking Heart (Paperback or Softback)

Forest ranger Callie Major is guarding a secret when she runs into her old best friend, Newton Denman in the Pennsylvania Allegheny mountains. The strange combination of a magnificent bear and the murder of Callie’s and Newton’s childhood art teacher bring the two together. This is a double mystery in that Callie is protecting a mother bear, who is nothing if not the force of nature herself. Complicating matters, both Newton and police officer Pete Myrick are in love with Callie, and the police detective has his own history with the forest ranger. In this suspense novel with an edge of magic realism, nature and people alike may be said to be wounded, craggy, and sublime.

Novelist David Maine writes that in this “backdrop of Pennsylvania’s mountain wilderness” is “a love story that manages to be both contemporary and timeless.” Margot Livesey, bestselling New York Times author states that "Melissa Croghan writes with grace and ease" in this "deeply suspenseful novel" with a "vivid cast of characters." Livesey's "first impulse on finishing 'The Tracking Heart' was to set out in search of Callie and Newton and especially he bear." The gold standard of critics, The Kirkus Review describes the "lost loves and covered-up crimes," in this book that "moves back and forth between the characters in the park and Callie and Newton's former hometown" to create a deeply "satisfying" story.

Melissa Croghan's award winning work is published in nationally distributed magazines and she holds a Ph.D in American Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Of her journey into The Tracking Heart, her debut novel, she explains: "My studies and research in American Literature fueled my interest in tall tales, Native American Creation myths and the 'spirit' bear in The Tracking Heart. A 'what if' situation inspired me when as a single mother I lived in a hunting community outside of Philadelphia. My son had befriended our next door neighbor, a young boy named 'Nature' whose family job was to set animal traps in the nearby forest. One evening I heard a commotion and looked out the window next to my bed. There in the back of a pickup truck owned by Nature's family was a huge and glossy black bear. That night I dreamt of the creature and slept fitfully. The following morning I gave birth (figuratively!) to the triangle of Callie, Newton, and Pete, and perhaps most significantly, the leviathan bear." Writer and artist Melissa Croghan, who lived in Pennsylvania for twenty-three years, presently divides her time between Mackinac Island and Connecticut. She lives with her family and animals at the edge of the woods, and is always on the lookout for the bear.