Celine
Peter Heller
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Celine
Peter Heller
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Like Mark Twain and Toni Morrison, Heller has a rare talent that hooks both literary and commercial readers. The book's irresistible suspense springs from the dynamic between his elegant, visionary imagination as it immerses you in the wilderness of the American West and its sleek-and-scruffy small towns, and his unerring instinct for writing classy, edge-of-your-seat, page-turning whodunits.
...what's difficult is swallowing the whole thing in full: believing that Celine not only became a detective, but became so good at it (with a clearance rate on her cases of 96 percent) that she had to turn down offers from the FBI.
At times Heller portrays Celine as the female counterpart to the Dos Equis World's Most Interesting Man mythic figure.
The mystery is complex and compelling, and original in its fresh combination of clichés. Much of the book is disconcerting in its combinations, which add up to a balanced whole that is jangling in its parts.
At its heart, this book is a character study, with elements of a private detective mystery and pretensions of a political thriller. But it is more concerned with the story of its protagonist, who is wonderfully wrought... The result is a tale that stays with you long after the final page has been turned.
These scenes of sleuthing set against the Wyoming wilderness are beautifully rendered.
Despite its intriguing premise, Heller’s third novel is a missing persons mystery that never quite finds its mark.