Caitlin Mullen's novel Heather follows Callie Hauser, a newly appointed police chief in her Pine Barrens hometown, as she reopens a cold case involving a dead newborn. The investigation quickly spreads into the lives of several townspeople, turning a single crime into a web of connected emotional upheavals.
A Familiar Setup with a Different Focus
The novel begins with a well-worn premise: a detective comes home to an official role that strains relationships with former friends, colleagues and rivals. Callie's position is complicated by her age, her sex, and a personal link to the retiring chief, who is her best friend's father-in-law. Her all-male squad resents her appointment, and at least one officer had expected the job for himself.
Where the Mystery Leads
Callie's first major act is stopping an erratic driver who turns out to be her estranged alcoholic mother, Jenna. That encounter pulls her back toward a decades-old case of a newborn found dead by the roadside, discovered by a mother who was then a teenager. While others consider the case a waste of time, Callie keeps digging, and the investigation exposes further unknowns, including DNA from a man who may be her anonymous father.
Characters Over Clues
Rather than tracing a single detective's path to a solution, Mullen moves among the perspectives of Callie, Annabelle and Blair, most of whom Callie does not initially know are connected to the case. The chapters are titled by character, and their stories converge with disruptive effects. By the conclusion a body is found, a murderer is arrested, and Callie's life is threatened.
Strengths and Limits
Reviewer Walter Cummins credits the novel with the character development typical of literary mysteries, though he argues that the thriller-style threat at the end is unnecessary. He also notes that Heather stops short of the broader statements about the human condition that writers such as Dickens and Dostoevsky made through their crime plots. The novel's central pleasure lies in its interest in how one crime reverberates through a community.