JanB's Reviews > The Guide

4.5 stars

Jack, still reeling from the events that happened a few years prior, lands a job at an exclusive resort in Colorado as a fly-fishing guide. Being on the river and surrounded by nature brings peace and contentment to Jack, when nothing else will.

I love Jack as a character. He’s a reflective young man who is well-educated, a reader, and lover of nature. If you’ve read The River, then you will remember him, but this book also works as a standalone.

The setting is in the not-too-distant future when the coronavirus variants are still with us. The Kingfisher Resort caters to the wealthy, offering them a safe vacation spot in the great outdoors. Jack is assigned to be the guide for Allison, a famous singer. They hit it off immediately, and their easy friendship was one of my favorite things in the novel.

Heller’s writing is a standout. I often don’t like descriptive writing in my books, but Heller writes thoughtfully and the descriptions flow beautifully as part of the narrative without pulling me out of the story, or worse, boring me. His writing works particularly well for me on audio.

Jack and Allison spend their days leisurely fishing and enjoying one another’s company, but it soon becomes clear something is not right at the Lodge. Is the barbed wire surrounding the property, along with other troubling signs, designed to keep people out, or keep people in?

Jack decides to investigate and what he and Allison discover puts this solidly in the thriller category. Avid Heller fans have mixed feelings about this turn of events but I loved the thriller aspects of the story, and couldn’t flip the pages fast enough to see how it would end.

• I received a digital copy for review from Edelweiss. All opinions are my own.
• I supplemented the book with audio, wonderfully narrated by Mark Deakins, who has narrated all of Heller’s books. Highly recommended!