Celine

February 27, 2017
Despite its intriguing premise, Heller’s (The Dog Stars) third novel is a missing persons mystery that never quite finds its mark. Celine, descended from the original governors of the Plymouth Colony, is a well-heeled investigator, the “Prada PI,” whose age (68) is still well below her success rate (96%). Gabriela hires her to look into the disappearance of Gabriela’s father, a famous nature photographer who years ago was presumed dead after a grizzly attack just outside of Yellowstone National Park. Agreeing with Gabriela that the death appeared staged, Celine and her husband, Pete, retired and almost as resourceful as his wife, head out West. The plucky Celine has her charms, but other characters, such as Elbie Chicksaw, the Montana tracker who studied comparative literature at Dartmouth, ring false, as does some of the dialogue: “You sound like that Neruda poem I love so.” The case slowly breaks open, but long flashbacks to Celine’s uber-WASPy childhood summers on Fishers Island, N.Y., sap the narrative of momentum, as does a subplot involving Celine’s son, who embarks on an missing persons investigation of his own in New England. The majesties and dangers of Yellowstone supply a compelling backdrop against which to set a story about “how easily parents can disappear and families fall apart,” and Heller, a gifted nature writer as well as novelist, handles certain set pieces well. But too often the novel seems lost in the wilderness. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

March 1, 2017
An aging PI on the trail of a decades-old cold case finds more than she bargained for in the wilds of Wyoming.Old-money WASP Celine Watkins, 68, the titular protagonist of Heller's (The Painter, 2014, etc.) first detective novel, isn't your typical private eye. But most private eyes can't boast a 96 percent success rate, either. Contacted by the daughter of a National Geographic photographer who disappeared in Yellowstone two decades earlier under mysterious circumstances, Celine and husband Pete head out from Brooklyn Heights to Wyoming. As the couple retraces the photographer's last known steps, however, they find a mystery far larger than just a missing journalist. These scenes of sleuthing set against the Wyoming wilderness are beautifully rendered--given that Heller is also a contributing editor to Outside magazine and National Geographic Adventure, it's no wonder the book's best moments come in its evocative descriptions of the American West in early autumn. Celine herself is a delight, and seeing grizzled men ranging from bikers to gun salesmen to Bruce Willis repeatedly underestimate this tough little old lady is one of the novel's biggest joys. But Heller's authorial presence is so strong that his characters' own voices suffer. When his characters withhold information from each other, it seems to happen for no reason other than to generate suspense, and their dialogue, while at times quite witty, is never recognizably distinct from Heller's narration. In a particularly illustrative instance, Pete recounts a conversation he had with a woman named Marie: " 'She was a man-eater!' Marie said in a baffled Haitian accent." It's hard to imagine an actual human being using the phrase "Marie said in a baffled Haitian accent," yet such unbelievable lines appear again and again. An imperfect but largely satisfying detective novel anchored by a charming and unforgettable heroine.

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Starred review from March 1, 2017
Heller's The Painter (2014) verged on crime fiction, and now he takes the plunge, once again portraying an artist, this time a blue-blooded sculptor with a fondness for skulls who also happens to be a righteous PI. Living in Brooklyn and about to turn 70 two years after 9/11, former avid smoker Celine is suffering from emphysema and determined to concentrate on her art and her strange cat husband, Pete, whom she met in AA. But Celine became a sleuth to help people find missing family members, having survived high-society scandals and wrenching losses, so she can't say no when young, striking Gabriela asks her to determine if her father, a famous National Geographic photographer, was actually killed by a bear in Yellowstone 23 years ago. Celine and Pete head West, borrow her son's camper, and launch a deceptively leisurely investigation showcasing Celine's appreciation for public libraries and passion for firearms, venturing into international cover-ups, and culminating in hilarious showdowns in which wit is the mightiest weapon. As for laconic Pete, he's got his beloved's back and her oxygen. This captivating, tender, brainy, and funny tale of the mysterious powers of beauty and grief, nature and family will leave readers hoping that Heller is planning a National Park series featuring this stealthy, irrepressible duo.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

October 15, 2016

Heller caught everyone's attention with his debut novel, The Dog Stars, and did even better with The Painter; both were national best sellers, and the latter also received MPIBA's Reading the West Book Award, the Colorado Book Award, and a nomination for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His new novel is literary suspense featuring elegant private eye Celine, far from her home base near the Brooklyn Bridge, as she tries to locate a photographer who vanished on the border of Montana and Wyoming. With a 100,000-copy first printing and a six-city tour.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2017

Celine is a paradox, a Sarah Lawrence blue blood who is also a licensed PI, living near the Brooklyn Bridge. She and her partner/husband, Pete, specialize in finding missing persons, with a success rate higher than that of the FBI. The main plot centers on a daughter's quest for her father, who "disappeared" at Yellowstone many years back, supposedly mauled by a grizzly, while a parallel plot has Celine's son seeking the identity of a child Celine birthed in her teens. Hired by the desperate daughter, Celine learns that local trackers and lawmen doubt the bear story, and as she and Pete approach the park, they realize they're being shadowed by an FBI sniper. Clearly, this is meant to remain a closed case. The missing father was a charismatic, world-famous National Geographic photographer who had been in Chile during the overthrow of President Salvador Allende; eventually we learn that he had pictures that compromised the current government. Near the conclusion, the G-man tries to take them out, but the 68-year-old asthmatic Celine is also a quick draw and a crack shot, although to say more would be a spoiler. VERDICT Heller (The Painter) blends suspense with beautiful descriptive writing of both nature and civilization to create a winner. [See Prepub Alert, 9/19/16.]--Robert E. Brown, Oswego, NY

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2017

Celine is a paradox, a Sarah Lawrence blue blood who is also a licensed PI, living near the Brooklyn Bridge. She and her partner/husband, Pete, specialize in finding missing persons, with a success rate higher than that of the FBI. The main plot centers on a daughter's quest for her father, who "disappeared" at Yellowstone many years back, supposedly mauled by a grizzly, while a parallel plot has Celine's son seeking the identity of a child Celine birthed in her teens. Hired by the desperate daughter, Celine learns that local trackers and lawmen doubt the bear story, and as she and Pete approach the park, they realize they're being shadowed by an FBI sniper. Clearly, this is meant to remain a closed case. The missing father was a charismatic, world-famous National Geographic photographer who had been in Chile during the overthrow of President Salvador Allende; eventually we learn that he had pictures that compromised the current government. Near the conclusion, the G-man tries to take them out, but the 68-year-old asthmatic Celine is also a quick draw and a crack shot, although to say more would be a spoiler. VERDICT Heller (The Painter) blends suspense with beautiful descriptive writing of both nature and civilization to create a winner. [See Prepub Alert, 9/19/16.]--Robert E. Brown, Oswego, NY

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.