Montana

Summary

Foreigncorrespondent Lola Wicks is pissed off. Her editor, downsizing her from her Kabulposting, reassigns her to a stateside suburban beat formerly the province ofinterns. Meanwhile, arriving in Montana for some R&R at a friend’s cabin, she issurprised to find her friend nowhere in sight.

Angerturns to terror when Lola discovers her friend shot dead. She can’t get out ofMontana fast enough but finds that she can’t leave, as she’s being held as apotential witness, thwarting her plan to return to Afghanistan on her own andhave her editors change their minds. Her best hope now lies in solving the caseherself. But this sure-footed journalist who deftly negotiated Afghanistan’sdeadly terrain finds herself frighteningly off balance in this forgotten cornerof her own country, plagued by tensions between the locals and citizens of thenearby Blackfeet Nation.

Lola’slone-wolf style doesn’t work in a place where the harsh landscape and extremeisolation compel people to rely upon each other in ways she finds unsettling.In her awkward attempts at connection, she forms a reluctant alliance with alocal reporter, succumbs to the romantic attentions of a wealthy rancher, andfences warily with the state’s first Indian candidate for governor, the subjectof her friend’s final stories.

Ultimatelyshe comes to truly care about the people she meets in Montana, only to miss thewarning signals that her own life is in danger.

Whileunraveling her friend’s terrible fate, Lola joins many Americans in learningthe hard lessons of a fraught economy—that circumstances change in a flash,that formerly overlooked places and people can hold deep value, and that humanbonds matter more than fleeting career success.