Editorial Content for Heather

Caitlin Mullen, the Edgar Award–winning author of PLEASE SEE US, returns with HEATHER. This atmospheric, tautly plotted suspense novel is about a decades-old cold case, a missing woman, and the police officer tasked with finding justice for both.

A sharp, intelligent investigator, Callie Hauser was once a celebrated North Jersey narcotics detective. But following a hit-and-run that left her best friend, Jane, disabled, she has returned to the Pine Barrens --- a 1.1-million-acre wilderness spanning seven counties in Southern New Jersey --- to help Jane and her family get back on their feet. Jane’s husband, Damian, is the son of the town’s former police chief, Frank Caputo, and Callie recently has taken up his old position, a move that has rubbed more than a few of the other police officers the wrong way. 

The police department of Pine Lakes is a bit like a frat house: the men trade bawdy jokes and often meet up at a pub just down the road for after-work drinks, and they don’t take kindly to the young female detective who no doubt thinks she’s too good to investigate minor crimes in their small town. But Pine Lakes isn’t home to just run-of-the-mill DUIs and trespasses. It also has begun to hear whispers of a drug ring, which has resulted in the overdoses of several teens and adults. Between caring for Jane’s young daughter and navigating the cliquey police department, Callie has tasked herself with putting an end to the devastation that drugs have wrought on her hometown.

"Powerful and gripping, atmospheric and tense, HEATHER will appeal to readers of Alex Finlay, Jennifer Hillier, and anyone who enjoys their suspense with a whopping side of real, hard-earned justice."

But first, there is another DUI, this time one with a surprising culprit: Callie’s own mother, Jenna. Callie has long known about her mother’s love of liquor, so her arrest comes as no surprise. But Jenna, who has always made references to a devil chasing her down, is different this time. She claims to have been sober for months. She is scared, paranoid and looking over her shoulder, even though it seems that the second shoe already has dropped. 

Late at night, Callie overhears her colleagues discussing her mother’s case. But rather than the usual jabs and insults she has come to expect, they mention something she has never heard before --- the cold case of a deceased baby found 30 years ago and the poor teen who made the discovery and was never the same again: Jenna. Possessing for the first time a reason for her mother’s addiction, a reason that Jenna could never be the mother she deserved, Callie prepares to confront Jenna. But she is already gone, having disappeared as soon as she was released.

In alternating chapters, we meet teens Sabrina and Annabelle Riley, twin sisters living in Pine Lakes in 1991. They essentially are making their own go of it following their mother’s disappearance and their father’s descent into alcoholism and long-haul jobs that keep him away for months at a time. While the girls are nearly identical, lately Sabrina --- the reckless, promiscuous twin --- has started to pull away from her boring, studious sister. Sabrina has begun spending her evenings with a man she calls “the Coyote,” who is much older and dangerous in a way that Annabelle cannot put her finger on. That is, until she finally sets out to meet him herself, a union that will change her life forever. In less than a year, both sisters will disappear, a deceased baby will be found, and Pine Lakes will lose its identity as a town where nothing bad happens.

In present day, Callie begins to split her time between investigating the town’s drug ring and her mother’s disappearance, which she is sure has to do with Jenna’s past discovery of a deceased infant. But despite the fact that several of her colleagues clearly know about her mother’s past --- and even believe that the baby belonged to slutty, promiscuous Sabrina Riley --- they are surprisingly mum on the details, often pretending to forget one of the most shocking crimes their town has ever seen. Weirder still, her best friend’s father-in-law, the former chief of police, continues to haunt the department. It’s clear that her colleagues prefer to answer to him, despite his purported support of Callie and her command. Even he refuses to discuss the cold case, though Callie can see that it has a direct connection to her mother’s disappearance.

What emerges --- slowly, tautly and with a heady atmosphere that feels as impressive and oppressive as the Pine Barrens themselves --- is a 30-year conspiracy that has deep roots in Pine Lakes and its residents. As an outsider, Callie alone seems able to connect the dots, to see the strange alliances that have formed both within and outside of the police force. But the more she digs, the more she uncovers, some of it with heartbreaking, crushing revelations about her own past. 

Readers of PLEASE SEE US will know already that Caitlin Mullen is adept at navigating complex plotlines. But in HEATHER, she weaves a dual-timeline, multi-perspective narrative that expands and contracts with each twist, zooming out to explore the identity of a corrupt town and then keenly zeroing in on the relationships that have allowed the town’s secrets to stay buried. Mullen packs Callie’s investigation with plenty of red herrings, each of them undeniably plausible and careening her toward a reveal that will upend everything she once thought about Pine Lakes, the police force, and even her own origins. She writes with equal parts compassion and rage, taking her ripped-from-the-headlines premise and transforming it into a searing, biting indictment of those who exploit our most vulnerable.

Perhaps most impressive, though, is Mullen’s clear love of and appreciation for New Jersey: its wild Pine Barrens, its seedy cities, and the women it has birthed, protected and championed. With that, though, comes cases like those of Sabrina and Annabelle Riley, of missing mothers and dead babies. Mullen navigates them with a clear-eyed compassion that speaks of an undercurrent of rage at the marginalization these women face. 

Powerful and gripping, atmospheric and tense, HEATHER will appeal to readers of Alex Finlay, Jennifer Hillier, and anyone who enjoys their suspense with a whopping side of real, hard-earned justice.