This newest novel by Peter Heller is a sequel to The River, which I thought was an incredibly good book. You don't have to have read the earlier book to enjoy this one but I would recommend it just to understand the main character, Jack, and the backstory to the grief that hangs over him like a cloud. Jack has been helping his father on their Colorado ranch and has now taken a break to be a fishing guide at an exclusive resort in the mountains near Crested Butte. But when he arrives, something seems off about the place, which is surrounded by 8-foot-high fencing with barbed wire around the top that looks designed to keep people in, not out. Still, he gets his own spartan cabin with a front porch that overlooks the Taylor River, gourmet meals, and is assigned a single female client who--amazingly--already is an accomplished fly fisherwoman. His client for the week is, in fact, a famous singer, but also a friendly and down-to-earth companion for fishing. As more and more seemingly sinister anomalies are discovered, Jack lets Alison in on his concerns and they do some investigating together. What they discover is shocking.
The reviews have been quite favorable with Publishers Weekly offering this recommendation: "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."
Booklist says of this The Guide, "Heller presents another brilliantly paced, unnerving wilderness thriller paired with an absorbing depiction of a remote natural paradise [offering]...Masterful evocations of nature..."
Kirkus notes that "Fisherman’s noir isn’t a genre, but maybe it should be...This is an unconventional mystery, an unconventional romance, and an unconventional adventure, creepy and spiritual in equal measure. "
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