Broken Angels

by Russell Heath

Genre: Mystery

"Heath's debut novel is gripping from the get-go." -Kirkus Reviews

"Alaska is almost a character all on its own: beautiful, unpredictable, violent, and unforgiving. Broken Angels is a compelling debut by a talented new writer." -Elaine Ford, winner of the Michigan Literary Award.

"This book was amazing, just as Burke brings New Orleans to life Heath puts Alaska into your soul." -Judy Smrdel

"Heath has tapped his intimate knowledge of Alaska, its people, its coastal communities and its interior uniqueness and crafted a character-rich, page-turning, murder mystery." -An Alaskan

She stares at her mother's clumsy lettering on the envelope. Nine years. Nine years since she stepped over her mother's drunken body and into a cold Alaska night running south, leaving her mother forever. How did she find me? She hesitates, knowing the letter inside will drag her home; back into the bleakness of a life with no exit. Kris Gabriel, Alaska Native, and fierce like a wolverine, returns to Alaska--to find her mother murdered. Guilty she abandoned her in life, Kris only knows to fight. Relentlessly, she tracks a trail of pain, of lost love, of lives ripped apart by the frozen north's unyielding laws, never suspecting that she has far more at stake than just finding her mother's killer.

Broken Angels is a fast-paced Alaskan noir filled with richly drawn characters struggling to survive in a hostile country where there are no second chances.

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In his teens, Russell Heath hitchhiked to Alaska and lived in a cabin on the banks of the Tanana River; in his twenties, he lived in Italy and then traveled overland across the Sahara, through the jungles and over the savannas of Africa and into southern Asia; in his thirties, he sailed alone around the world in a 25 foot wooden boat; in his forties, he wrote novels; and in his fifties he bicycled the spine of the Rockies from Alaska to Mexico.

He's worked on the Alaska Pipeline, as an environmental lobbyist in the Alaska Legislature, and run a storied environmental organization fighting to protect Alaska's coastal rainforests. Several years ago, he moved to New York City to dig deep into leadership development and coaching. He now coaches business and non-profit leaders intent on making big things happen in the world.