Kate Fisher and Red Nelson, women pilots and estranged sisters from opposite sides of a fractured family, are thrown together in a suspenseful drama of Search & Rescue in the Adirondack mountains of New York State when Red is framed for the brutal attack on the manager of her indie rock band.

Her dying mother begs her to flee for sanctuary to the only family Red doesn't yet know--her sister Kate. But dramatic crosswinds take her plane into a spin and she emergency lands in a remote gorge. Kate, a Search & Rescue worker, is called to the crash site of Red's plane, to solve the mystery through clues that lead her to a dangerous reunion with her sister. When the real attacker comes after Red and threatens Kate's family, including her daughter, Molly, who decides to hide Red on their property, concern over Molly's safety forces the two sisters to face past secrets and present dangers, stage a real rescue, and begin to repair the broken but longed-for family they come from.

A cross-generational family saga with fast-paced tension, called "an exciting work of survival fiction with strong female characters," (Kirkus Review, selected for Kirkus magazine) that "deftly balances the tension and danger of a crime thriller with the emotion and compassion of a family saga" (Independent Book Review), A Woman's Guide to Search & Rescue is a literary thriller that explores the unexpected gift of found family in times of loss and tragedy, the forging of a meaningful but complex sister relationship between two related strangers, and the discovery, by three women of different generations, that by saving each other, they save themselves.