"I first discovered John Holt through his excellent outdoors books that extoll the pleasures of nature, fly fishing, and conservation. More recently I discovered his excellent fiction, a neo-noir novel titled Death In a Live Forest. Now I've come across this new novel Where Paradise Lay, a masterfully told story about colorful denizens in a remote corner of Montana opposing mining operations that threaten the environment ... and I'm hooked." —Edward Squires, Not Quite Novellas

Natalie and the valley's derelicts live in a wilderness paradise, but a gold mining company is about to savage a local mountain known as Jane's Hill. Can they stop it? Probably not. But Natalie -- a woman whose attitude was sizably influenced by the life and writings of Gertrude Stein -- continues to work on the problem as she throws "sedate salons" at her Joint, a two-story lodge of rough-hewn logs, and fishes the clear streams for brookies. She knows the mine will kill the river. That's why she finds a conflict in being nice to Parker, the six-foot-tall, sandy-haired mine manager. But then there's her unresolved relationship with Jack. Sarah, the shrink from Missoula, is always reminding her of those issues. And meanwhile Painter Bob is stirring up local folk, saying they should bomb the mine. My God, what if they did?