June 28, 2021
Jack
, the rustic if Ivy League–educated hero of this captivating thriller from Edgar finalist Heller (The River), takes a job as a seasonal fishing guide at Colorado’s posh Kingfisher Lodge in an effort to escape his traumatic past and the tedium of his father’s ranch. There, he’s quickly warned about the trigger-happy old man who lives on the property next door. Soon, strange things about the Kingfisher are enough to get Jack wary of the whole scene: strict rules, guests who don’t fish, and lots of cameras. Out on the river with a celebrity client, singer Alison K, Jack gets a warning shot from the neighbor, prompting the pair to investigate and unravel a truly heinous crime. Heller’s lush descriptions of fishing and river country are matched with a riveting, surprising mystery that captures the difference between the filthy rich and everyone else. The novel’s speculative approach to the lingering effects of Covid-19 is frightening in its subtlety and one of the book’s special charms. Readers looking for a credible couple and a story of redemption will love this. Agent: David Halpern, Robbins Office.
July 15, 2021
A fishing adventure turns dark as night. Fisherman's noir isn't a genre, but maybe it should be. The high-end Colorado resort at the heart of this soulful mystery offers some of the best angling in the country, with waters seemingly carved out of Eden. It's a nice getaway from the persistent strains of Covid-19. But something's not right. The neighbor upstream likes to shoot at visitors who get too close to his property. Guests disappear for stretches at a time and return acting as if they're survived a horrible trauma. And the manager seems to have a fast-and-loose relationship with the truth. The new guide, a grief-stricken 25-year-old named Jack, happens to be a keen observer with an eye for the out of the ordinary. He also happens to be falling in love with Alison K., the famous but effortlessly earthy singer he's been assigned to guide through a week of good fishing. This is an unconventional mystery, an unconventional romance, and an unconventional adventure, creepy and spiritual in equal measure. Jack has a thing for eighth-century Chinese poetry. He describes one of his favorite poets as "an aficionado of loss and also of nature, which Jack could relate to." Jack has lost both his mother and his best friend, and he blames himself for both deaths. He escapes through reading and fishing. But this is no escape, unless you're the reader. The author clearly knows his way around a river; the long, descriptive passages create a vivid sense of place and action even if they may puzzle those of us who don't know a mayfly from a riffle. By the time Jack and Alison encounter a young woman running down the road in a hospital gown in a scene right out of the sinister noir Kiss Me Deadly, they're in too deep, and they're too curious, to quit the dangerous puzzle before them. You might feel the same. There's danger at the end of the line in this unconventional mystery.
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Starred review from July 1, 2021
Colorado rancher's son, Jack, from Heller's much-acclaimed The River (2019), is still mourning the loss of his Dartmouth buddy Wynn during an ill-fated outing together in the wilds of northern Canada. He is now, once again, in treacherous waters, avoiding a third year of the COVID pandemic by working as a guide at an elite fishing resort in his home state. Kingfisher Lodge seems, at times, more of a secure fortress than a retreat for its wealthy clientele, with its barbed wire and ""Don't Get Shot!"" signs. Jack is assigned to guide a well-known female singer, and the idyllic start of their relationship takes a dangerous turn with macabre finds in the woods and inexplicable screams in the night. Heller presents another brilliantly paced, unnerving wilderness thriller paired with an absorbing depiction of a remote natural paradise. The reader climbs steep paths through aspen groves to observe dawn erase "the last pockets of darkness out of the canyon." Masterful evocations of nature are not surprising, given Heller's award-winning nonfiction about his own outdoor experiences, while his ability to inject shocking menace into a novel that might otherwise serve as a lyrical paean to nature is remarkable.
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Starred review from July 23, 2021
Heller's readers will recognize Jack, the rugged outdoorsman and survivor of a terrifying canoe trip in his previous novel, The River. Three years later, in a post-pandemic world, Jack is still reeling from the deaths of his mother and his best friend, Wynn. He hopes to find inner peace as a guide at an elite fishing resort in the Colorado mountains, whose rich and famous guests gave the resort riverfront the nickname "Billionaire's Mile." His first day on the job, he discovers hidden cameras in the trees, in his room, and in the lodge and its outbuildings. Another guide warns him about neighboring property boundaries that are protected by vicious dogs. Jack takes it in stride, especially since his fishing client is a likable superstar singer, Alison K., who knows how to handle a fishing rod as well as a gun. Both find solace in the pleasure of fishing and being with each other. But after Jack sees a line of children in hospital gowns being manhandled by goons in black outfits, he has to confide to Alison all that he's learned. Wasting no time, and with the help of Alison, guns, and sticks of dynamite, Jack brings down an unimaginable scheme at Billionaire's Mile. VERDICT Heller's chilling tale of twisted minds playing on pandemic fears is all too realistic. One heckuva read; don't miss it.--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO
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