Monday, February 13, 2023

Morality guide

All his life, when things had gotten really tough, or confusing, or almost too beautiful to bear, Jack had gone fishing.
Peter Heller, The Guide

Peter Heller does it again in The Guide (2021), his novel about a fishing guide who becomes a morality guide in a world gone crazy after a series of deadly international viruses.

Jack, still mourning the deaths of both his mother and his best friend, takes some time off from his father's ranch to work as a guide for millionaires at an isolated fishing lodge. He is assigned to Alison, a famous singer whom Jack has barely heard of. Jack is more into Japanese poetry than American popular music. Yet he and Alison make a connection, however brief there time together might be.

He quickly realizes that things don't add up at this high-class resort. Why do so many of the millionaires and billionaires at this fishing resort never do any fishing? Why all the cameras? Why all the fencing that seems designed more to keep people in than out? Why does the wealthy owner tolerate a neighbor who sends warning shots at anyone who gets too close to the property line?

Heller keeps the tension building, both that between Jack and Alison and that involving the resort with something to hide. Alison turns out to be a resourceful country girl and Jack's match when the time comes to break out of the luxury resort that has become a prison.

If you are looking for a literary thriller that mixes poetry in with the action, you won't go wrong with The Guide.

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