By: Michael Beas
There is a specific pleasure that comes from reading a thriller in which the setting is not simply an evocative backdrop but a genuine character in its own right, a place whose spectacular geography and unique limitations shape every decision the characters make and every outcome the plot produces. Eric Crook has written exactly that kind of evocative thriller in Between a Rock . . ., the first installment of The Gansted Trilogy, and the Adirondacks come alive on the page and are recognizable as a real and specific place in the way that only happens when the author’s knowledge of wilderness survival goes deeper than a few research visits could provide.
Crook holds a bachelor’s in forest management and a master’s in planning. He has spent his career thinking seriously about the intersection of natural environments and the agencies charged with managing them. That background is present on every page of Between a Rock. . . not as abstract expertise but as the foundational knowledge that makes every scene feel grounded in how the Adirondacks actually work, how the Department of Environmental Conservation actually operates, how law enforcement actually struggles to function in terrain that was not compatible with their operational know-how. When the resources of the DEC are stretched thin by a simultaneous manhunt and the need to keep hikers and campers out of harm’s way, that tension feels genuinely consequential because Crook understands what those resource limitations are and what stretching them actually costs.
The characters at the center of the story are built with the same attention to detail and real-world texture. Stacy, the first woman to be named crew chief in the Adirondacks, is not defined by her trailblazing status but by the daily professional responsibilities of navigating an institutional environment that was not designed with her capabilities in mind; during a crisis that is testing every member of her team in ways that none of them fully anticipated. Wayne, the newly recruited forester from Montana, brings an outsider’s perspective that is genuinely useful both as narrative and in a practical sense, giving the reader a point of orientation without resorting to the clumsy device of a protagonist who needs everything explained for their benefit. The competitive natures that the team has to set aside under pressure feel authentic rather than artificially imposed, because Crook understands how professional hierarchies and personal ambitions really interact when external pressure makes collaboration simultaneously more necessary and more difficult.
The crime at the center of the story, which connects the apparent fall from the cliffs of Avalanche Lake to a bank robbery and a murder in ways that gradually reveal themselves as the investigation unfolds, is constructed with the concise crafting of a writer who understands a plot is not a string of events but a system of causal relationships between events and consequences. The revelations arrive at the right pace and in the right order, and the physical and institutional constraints that make the investigation so challenging feel genuinely limiting rather than artificially imposed obstacles to manufacture dramatic convenience.
Between a Rock . . . is a genuinely accomplished debut thriller with a hint of emerging romance, grounded in real expertise and executed with real verve, and the series it launches deserves the wide readership that this opening volume will earn.
If you want a wilderness thriller that combines genuine expertise with regard to its wilderness setting with engaging character dynamics and a crime plot that develops with satisfying intelligence and pace, Between a Rock . . . by K. Eric Crook is waiting for you on Amazon.
