The Foothills of Heaven

Katherine and Mac return to the Florida panhandle one year after the murder case that brought them together. Mac, a private detective who became entangled in Katherine's fight to save her daughter, comes back home with Katherine as his wife. They have a baby now, and have been willed a farm and land by a deceased friend. Katherine hopes to find a place to 'fit in,'and Mac wants to build a new home for them. A series of murders that locals say are being done by Satan Worshipers, whom they claim belong to a new experimental 'school' leased to one portion of Mac and Katherine's land, puts the two in the middle of a war between those locals and the 'outsiders' at the school. Then, the murders begin happening very close to home, driving a wedge between them, threatening to tear their marriage apart. Katherine and Mac fight to keep their love intact as Kate tries to find a place to belong in the community and Mac struggles to find the murderer against Katherine's wishes.

In this ‘stand alone' sequel to the critically acclaimed novel, A Thousand Bridges, The Foothills of Heaven finds Katherine and Mac returning to the Florida panhandle one year after the murder case that brought them together. Mac, a private detective who became entangled in Katherine's fight to save her daughter, comes back home with Katherine as his wife. They have a baby now, and have been willed a farm and land by a deceased friend. Katherine hopes to find a place to 'fit in,' and Mac wants to build a new home for them. A series of murders that locals say are being done by Satan Worshipers, whom they claim belong to a new experimental 'school' leased to one portion of Mac and Katherine's land, puts the two in the middle of a war between those locals and the 'outsiders' at the school. Then, the murders begin happening very close to home, driving a wedge between them, threatening to tear their marriage apart. Mac has always been a loner, and has never fully recovered from his former girlfriend's murder in the panhandle. He wants to be left alone, wants to build a home for his family on the same piece of land a dear friend died protecting. The same land where he saved Katherine, and she saved him. Now, as war escalates between the townspeople and the ‘school,' as the murders seem to point toward that school, Katherine and Mac take opposite sides. She accuses Mac of driving her away from her new friends, and he accuses her of risking it all just to ‘fit in.' Through it all, Katherine and Mac fight to keep their love intact as she tries to start a new life and Mac struggles to find the murderer against Katherine's wishes.

Michael McKinney's first novel, A Thousand Bridges, won critical acclaim that began with a starred review in Publishers Weekly, who also chose the author as one of their Top Ten First Novelists in 1992. The choice of A Thousand Bridges by The Library Journal that same year as one of the Top 20 First Novels introduced it into libraries across the country. Outstanding reviews followed in publications from The St. Petersburg Times in Florida to the San Francisco Chronicle, from Kirkus Reviews to the AP wire services who stated ‘A Thousand Bridges Bats 1,000.' First released in a hardbound edition by Walker Books, NYC, it was introduced to the eBook market in 2011. Now, McKinney has released the sequel to A Thousand Bridges in a ‘stand alone' novel called The Foothills of Heaven. It continues the story of Mac and Katherine, their return to Florida one year after a series of brutal murders drove them away, and the story of their struggle to stay together, to stay in love as their world crumbles around them following the nearby murder of a young girl. Michael McKinney is a native Floridian, from a pioneer family, and his love for the state and its people shines through these two novels, and through the lives of MacDonald Clay and Katherine Furay in The Foothills of Heaven.