The Guide discussion

If you didn’t care for this book, you might find it hard to believe it got starred reviews in the review journals. Library Journal: “One heckuva read; don’t miss it.” Publishers Weekly: “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.” Kirkus Reviews: “This is an unconventional mystery, an unconventional romance, and an unconventional adventure, creepy and spiritual in equal measure.”
The BookPage review warned that Heller’s novels “are not for the faint of heart.” If it says “thriller” right on the cover, wouldn’t you know you have to be ready for anything? Or do you feel like such a book needs a warning label?
Maybe it also need a label warning for excessive use of fly fishing terminology. Why is fishing so important in this story? As the BookPage review pointed out, “Jack hopes to lose himself in the rhythms of a pristine Rocky Mountain river as a fishing guide….Fishing, in fact, is Jack’s therapy for his trauma and PTSD: “”He had learned that it was much less a distraction than a form of connection: of connecting to the best part of himself, and to a discipline that demanded he stay open to every sense, to the nuances of the season and to the instrument of his own body, his own agility or fatigue.”” I had re-read this sentence, feeling it got to the core of the story, and why Heller uses fishing as a plot device.
It seemed that we liked the setting: in place, the mountains of Colorado; in time, post-Covid-19 pandemic, but with the threat of resurgence. I guess that was the biggest hint as to what was really going on at the ranch, but who could see that coming? The suspense built up to at last reveal the truth, and then Jack and Alison K stepped up to save the day, as should happen in a thriller! Hopefully, if Jack was “broken,” as bad guy Kurt said he was, by the end he is on his way to being healed. Reuniting with Alison at the very end suggests a happy ending for our hero.
A challenge: If you didn’t care for “The Guide,” try reading “The River,” the first book about Jack, and see if you like it better.