by Peter Heller
First published 2017
Celine moves through her cases with practiced elegance, a private investigator who has built her career on bringing separated families back together. Her clients come to her with missing persons cases that police have abandoned or never taken seriously. She works methodically, following paper trails and human connections that others overlook. Each reunion she orchestrates serves a dual purpose. While she genuinely wants to help her clients find their loved ones, every successful case also represents her attempt to atone for something she lost in her own past. The work becomes both her profession and her penance. As Celine pursues her latest case, the investigation forces her to confront the personal tragedy that drives her mission. Her refined exterior masks a woman carrying deep guilt, someone who believes that reuniting other families might somehow balance the scales of her own loss.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, detective, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: atonement, character-driven, redemption-arc
334 pages · Hardcover · Knopf