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The Guide
Seasoned wilderness writer Heller tries his hand at the thriller genre in this follow-up to The River. “The virus from three years back that kept mutating, the superbug that finally broke out of India.” Though not a sequel, The Guide picks up Jack’s story several years after The River ends, and spoilers to the previous book’s ending are embedded in the plot. Jack has graduated from Dartmouth and come home to Colorado. Now he’s taken a summer job as a fly-fishing guide at a luxe resort that caters to celebrity clientele. He’s lucky, it seems—it’s rare for a guide to leave mid-season, but his predecessor did. Jack is paired with Allison, a country music star born and raised in East Tennessee who loves to fish for the same reasons Jack does—to enjoy the full absorption the sport requires. Jack’s first clue that something is amiss is the camera. Totally fascinating—the first book I’ve read that incorporates covid into the plot in a necessary and artful manner.
About the Book
The best-selling author of The River returns with a heart-racing thriller about a young man who, escaping his own grief, is hired by an elite fishing lodge in Colorado, where amid the natural beauty of sun-drenched streams and forests he uncovers a plot of shocking menace.
Kingfisher Lodge, nestled in a canyon on a mile and a half of the most pristine river water on the planet, is known by locals as “Billionaire’s Mile” and is locked behind a heavy gate. Sandwiched between barbed wire and a meadow with a sign that reads “Don’t Get Shot!” the resort boasts boutique fishing at its finest. Safe from viruses that have plagued America for years, Kingfisher offers a respite for wealthy clients. Now it also promises a second chance for Jack, a return to normalcy after a young life filled with loss. When he is assigned to guide a well-known singer, his only job is to rig her line, carry her gear, and steer her to the best trout he can find.
But then a human scream pierces the night, and Jack soon realizes that this idyllic fishing lodge may be merely a cover for a far more sinister operation. A novel as gripping as it is lyrical, as frightening as it is moving, The Guide is another masterpiece from Peter Heller.
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