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Song and Cable marry on a romantic holiday, but their relationship falls apart when they get back to real life. Cable isn't willing to leave his small home town of Highcoal, West Virginia, where he is the superintendant of the local coal mine, and Song isn't willing to leave her job as head of acquisitions for her father's New York company. Song decides to annul the marriage after a disasterous trip to Highcoal, but a mining accident and a slightly manipulative father take her back to the town, to learn to be a coal miner and try and find out why the mine isn't meeting its targets.The first part of the book - Song and Cable making a mess of their marriage - wasn't really a good introduction, as neither of them came across as particularly likeable, and Cable's character remained distant throughout the novel. The novel improved as it progressed, as Song begins training and investigating what is happening in the mine. This was excellent, with the kind of detail that only someone with a lot of experience could provide, yet it never felt as though there was too much detail.The real weakness, from my point of view, was the relationship between Song and Cable. It just wasn't there. I had no real idea of what brought the two together in the first place beyond the initial physical attraction. Although Red Helmet is published by Thomas Nelson, a publisher of Christian fiction and non-fiction, the novel doesn't have a major religious focus (although the church is a central focus of the community, which is reflected in the story).