Rain Stockton, a dog trainer returns to active Search and Rescue work to help find a mother and six-year-old girl who have been kidnapped and taken deep into the wilderness.

Johnny Molloy, who has spent more than 800 nights backpacking in the Smokies, has updated his classic guide Top Trails: Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This revised edition has been completely updated, including the new backcountry reservation system implemented in the park. He has also added some excellent hikes, some of them well off the beaten path. For example, the hike to Baskins Creek Falls takes you past a pioneer homesite and to a scenic cascade overshadowed by more popular waterfalls nearby, making it an ideal destination for those who want to escape the crowds. A longer trek traverses the regal pine-oak forests of the western part of the park, making a stop at Abrams Falls, mixing solitude with a must-visit waterfall on every Smokies bucket list. Johnny also explores early park history on a hike up Kephart Prong. Here, you can see the remains of a fish hatchery constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, as well as a trail shelter erected by the CCC when the park was just coming to be. Backpackers will enjoy the new loop incorporating Walnut Bottoms along cascading Big Creek, coupled with a stop by historic Mount Cammerer tower, replete with stellar views, before overnighting at Davenport Shelter on the Appalachian Trail. Additionally, Johnny--who considers the Smokies his home stomping ground--makes sure that all the necessary information to help you execute a hike from directions to maps are correct. New photos add flair to the book.

God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a gruelling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail. The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in North America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas. With his offbeat sensibility, his eye for the absurd, and his laugh-out-loud sense of humour, Bryson recounts his confrontations with nature at its most uncompromising over his five-month journey. An instant classic, riotously funny, A Walk in the Woods will add a whole new audience to the legions of Bill Bryson fans.

Nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, Hanover County draws tourists every fall to leaf-look and hike. But unlike them, Michelle White came to die. The cops don’t know if it was suicide, but for days, her body has lain in a cabin, her wheelchair toppled, her hand around a shotgun—and her terrified dog starving. So they call in Raine Stockton, known among these parts for her canny way with canines… Busy with a thriving kennel business, an annoying new neighbor, four dogs, and an estranged husband looking to reunite, Raine hardly has time for the poor dog she’s named Hero. But as she falls for him, questions surface: Why were there no groceries, luggage, or dog food in the cabin? And if Michelle was paralyzed on her right side, why was the gun in her right hand? Only Hero knows…and it’s up to Raine to find out.

Book #14 in the Award-Winning Raine Stockton Dog Mystery SeriesRaine Stockton knows dogs, not kids. Nonetheless, she is supremely confident in her ability to take care her fiancé's ten year old daughter, Melanie, for a week while he is out of town. After all, how hard could it be?But things get complicated when Raine and her golden retriever, Cisco, rescue a dog who is locked in a hot car in a remote Smoky Mountain park... and subsequently discover the owner of that car drowned in the creek only a few dozen yards away. Was it an accident, or was it murder?Raine is certain that she recognizes the abandoned dog from her puppy training class six years ago. Mere months later, the dog, along with his three-year-old owner, disappeared from the child's bedroom during the night and were never seen again. Now the dog is back, and Raine is convinced his reappearance might hold the key to the truth about the missing child. The problem is that no one believes her.While Raine tries to unravel the mystery of the abandoned dog's past-and a six-year-old missing child case-her ex-husband, criminal investigator Buck Lawson, opens an investigation into the death of the man in whose car the dog was found. He soon finds himself involved in another cold case, one that leads him from an apparent serial killer in Florida to a murder in his own hometown.The one thing that ties the two cases together is the dog whose shadowy history opens the door to questions better left unasked, and whose answers may prove to be deadly. But when lives are in danger, it is up to Raine and Cisco to track down the truth, even though it means risking someone she loves.

On Sara's camping trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, "she becomes the first human ever to witness a Salamander Ball."--Cover. Includes illustrations and information on fifteen types of salamanders

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