Heat and Light by Jennifer Haigh has wonderful character development and a strong sense of place. Fracking comes to the small, worn out town of Bakerton, PA that sits atop the Marcellus Shale. Some residents are sold on the possibilities of leasing their mineral rights, others not so much. The author writes with real compassion about the hard choices people make and the fact there are no easy answers. Neighbors are adversarial, the land men sneaky, the ones in favor of the gas development also sympathetic. This is a fine well-written book about the environment and people who are struggling to make a life in a community that has seen better days.