THE GUIDE
The best-selling author of The River returns with a heart-racing thriller about a young man who is hired by an elite fishing lodge in Colorado, where he uncovers a plot of shocking menace amid the natural beauty of sun-drenched streams and forests.
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.
★ AN INDIE NEXT PICK FOR SEPTEMBER 2021
★ AN AARP HOT NEW NOVEL FOR SUMMER
★ A VERANDA MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF SUMMER
★ A LITHUB MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2021
PRAISE & REVIEWS
“Peter Heller’s riveting thriller is set in the American wilderness, but the threats gathering around Jack, the young fishing guide of the title, come from man, not nature… Unnerving… A chilling reminder of the dangers that might lie in wait for us all.”
–Connie Ogle, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Heller presents another brilliantly paced, unnerving wilderness thriller paired with an absorbing depiction of a remote natural paradise. … 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.”
–Booklist, starred
“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.”
–Publishers Weekly
“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… The author clearly knows his way around a river; the long, descriptive passages create a vivid sense of place and action… 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.”
–Kirkus
“Peter Heller is the poet laureate of the literary thriller, and The Guide offers further proof for the case. Powered by Heller’s trademark prose, which alternately thunders and eddies like his beloved western rivers, this sinister and soulful story unfurls so skillfully that it’s easy to ignore all the layers beneath—but you shouldn’t. Heller writes about the eternal questions and the exquisite details, and he knows the places where they intersect in the human heart and the natural world.”
–Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Wish Me Dead