Paper Ghosts

Starred review from February 26, 2018
The unnamed 24-year-old narrator of this artful and elegiac psychological thriller set in Texas from Heaberlin (Black-Eyed Susans) has spent every moment since her older sister, Rachel, vanished 12 years earlier investigating what happened. Her primary suspect is 61-year-old documentary photographer Carl Louis Feldman, who was once tried for a girl’s murder and whose photos she can link to 10 missing girls; Carl
suffers from dementia, though, and claims not to remember his past. Undaunted, the young woman springs the artist from his state-sponsored halfway house by posing as his long-lost daughter and takes him on a road trip designed to unlock his secrets and bring closure to his victims’ families, which offers some surprisingly comic moments. The author wields words like weapons, with each one chosen to heighten tension, underscore emotion, or foreshadow doom. Keen character work further distinguishes the tale; neither Carl nor the narrator is entirely good, reliable, or sane, adding texture and profundity to an already riveting relationship. Haeberlin brilliantly combines travelogue with a heartbreaking portrait of the damage done by childhood trauma. Agent: Kimberly Witherspoon, Inkwell Management.

March 1, 2018

What do you do with a criminal who has escaped justice and now has dementia? Carl Feldman--a documentary photographer now residing in an assisted-living facility--may be just such a person. And though he was acquitted for one murder, he's probably committed many more. That last fact is what brings a young woman to Carl's door; she says she's his daughter and wants to get to know him, but in reality she is determined to delve into the reaches of his memory. She's determined to find the man who killed her older sister, and believes Carl is responsible. And while Carl isn't fully convinced that she's his daughter and claims not to remember killing anyone, he does agree to accompany the woman on a death trip, which will take them to the sites where he is suspected to have enacted the crimes. VERDICT Heaberlin's latest (after Black-Eyed Susans) is a tense, gripping read with a cat-and-mouse game that will keep readers riveted. [See Prepub Alert, 11/21/17.]--Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2018
Heaberlin's mysterious protagonisther real name is only revealed at the book's endbelieves that Carl Feldman, an elderly man acquitted of multiple murders, is her father and that the Texas road trip she's taking him on will allow her to discover if he's really a killer. In reality, the woman believes that Feldman, who is either faking dementia or is, to quote him, a pure grade lunatic, killed her sister years before. She's determined to put her obsession to rest by finding out the truth, but it's tough: Carl might be old, but he's still scary, and, as the trip unwinds, it becomes clear that he may not be the only malevolent force she faces. Heaberlin's spot-on depiction of mental anguish, her careful creation of characters who are mean and troubled yet compelling, and an unexpected twist at the end make this a winner; suggest it especially to patrons who like a Texas backdrop and or the work of Megan Abbott.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)