My Readers Guide to Heather by Caitlin Mullen looks at this moving police procedural that reminded me of Long Bright River by Liz Moore.
Readers Guide to Heather by Caitlin Mullen
Jen’s Quick Take on Heather by Caitlin Mullen
- Heather is a small-town police procedural set in a small New Jersey town
- There are several female narrators: Callie, the police chief, Annabelle, a teen in the 1990s, and Blair, a teen in New York
- With its family relationships, gritty drug themes, and small town secrets, this book reminded me a bit of Long Bright River and also Mare of Easttown (both of which featured female detectives as well)
- I’m not always a fan of a past-present narrative, but I thought it worked well in this book
- Gripping, emotional, and suspenseful, Heather is
- Publication date: June 9 2026 by Celadon Books. Thanks to them for the advance review copy.
Character List for Heather by Caitlin Mullen
Present Day Characters
- Calliope “Callie” Hauser: Chief of police in Pine Lakes, New Jersey
- Frank Caputo: (former chief of police)
- Luke Caputo: Frank’s son
- Damien Caputo: Frank’s son
- Jane: Damien’s wife and Callie’s close friend
- Opal: Damien and Jan’s young dfaughter
- Jenna: Callie’s mother; history of substance abuse disorder
- Adrian: local professor whom Callie is dating
Pine Lakes Residents
- Gary Hines: owner of tackle shop where Sabrina worked
- Billy Fauver: local drug dealer
- Collins: police officer
- Latour: police officer
- Keegan: police officer
- Della: friend of Jenna and police station receptionist
- Rebecca Nixon: genetic genealogist
- Benny Healey: cold case detective
- Layla Hart: teen that Callie saves from an OD
- Kirby Lewes: owner of paintball field
- Blair Owens: teenager looking in her mom’s closet
- Iris Owens: Blair’s mother
- Kyle Owens: Blair’s brother
- Jake Owens: Blair’s brother
1990s Characters
- Sabrina Riley
- Annabelle: Sabrina’s twin sister
- Trent Brentwood: guy Sabrina was involved with
- Lynn Hamilton: Annabelle’s teacher and mentor
Plot Summary for Heather by Caitlin Mullen
Plot summaries for past-present timeline books with multiple POV characters are always a bit challenging.
I tried to write a standard chronological summary and it wasn’t working.
It was too choppy and spoilers were sort of an issue. So I will try a summary and a FAQ if you have questions, please leave a comment and we can chat!
Heather has two timelines: a 2023 timeline and an early 1990s one.
In the 2023 timeline:
Pine Lakes Police Chief Callie Hauser has three problems:
Her mom Jenna
First Callie picks Jenna up for drunk driving. When she takes Jenna into the station, she overhears the other officers saying that her mom found an abandoned baby when she was sixteen. She looks up the case file. In 1991, Jenna was delivering newspapers when she found a baby on the side of the road. Nearby was a broken bracelet.
She gets the name of the mother of the abandoned baby, Baby Doe: Sabrina Riley.
Then Jenna goes missing and a hiker finds her bag and wallet near a hiking trail.
Her friend,Jane
Jane was seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver. Jane’s husband Damien is the son of Frank Caputo, the former police chief. Right before her injury, Jane had called Callie to say that she was leaving her husband.
A drug problem in town.
Callie is called to an overdose and believes that someone name Billy Fauver was responsible.
Timeline 2: the 1990s: Sabrina and Annabelle
Sabrina has a twin sister, Annabelle. The two of them are foraging for mushrooms and make jokes about The Destroying Angel, a poisonous mushroom. Annabelle wants to go away to college
We learn that Annabelle is the one who is pregnant. Sabrina is seeing Billy Fauver, and also a man she calls The Coyote.
A desperate Annabelle calls a pregnancy helpline, but they want her to keep her baby. She continues to hide the pregnancy.
2023: Callie
Callie gets a call from her cop friend Healeys. He asked a genetic genealogist to try to trace relatives of Baby Doe, and that she found one: Callie is the baby’s half sister.
Callie is also dating a new guy, a professor named Adrian.
2023: Blair
In New York, a teenaged girl named Blair is looking in her mom Iris’s closet for something she can wear to sext her boyfriend and finds a lighter with an S on it, a pressed flower, and a note that says “I love you. Forgive me.”
Blair begins tracking her Iris’s movements and follows her to a remote place where afterwards, Blair finds a metal lockbox.
After developing some film she finds in the box and learning that her mother was a twin, she decided to do a mail-in DNA test.
2023: Callie
Callie finds Jane’s daughter Opal with a bag of heroin and grills Jane. Is Damien dealing drugs?
She also tracks down Lunn Hamilton, Annabelle Riley’s teacher, who suggests that Sabrina was romantically involved with a police officer.
At the Riley’s old house, she finds an address for a woman named Iris Owens and goes to talk to her.
1990s:
Annabelle is about to deliver her baby, but Sabrina is missing.
2023:
Blair gives Sabrina’s notebook to Callie.
Callie learns that Jane was the one dealing drugs. She started selling mushrooms and then leading mushroom hikes. She got hit by the car because she decided she wanted out.
Healy calls Callie and says the police are arresting Iris/Annabelle. Also, the genetic genealogist leaked Iris’s name and she’s getting a lot of online hate.
Blair gets her mother’s confession from the lockbox and destroys it.
Spoilers for the Ending of Caitlin
Damien tricks Callie into meeting him. He says that Luke was a cop back in the 90s, and used the job to “meet girls.”
Callie realizes that Luke is the Coyote, and is the father of Annabelle’s baby AND of Callie. Damien hits Callie with a rock and ties her up, saying that he will stage her death as a suicide, but Jane shows up with a gun and shoots Damien in the leg.
After recovering from her ordeal, Callie finds Jenna hiding in a remote hunting cabin. Callie is angry that Luke will get off, but is told that if she finds other girls he groomed and abused, they can make a case against him.
- Annabelle is sentenced to a year in prison.
- Because Billy Fauver died of an overdose, Jane’s drug dealing stays a secret.
- Della’s daughter, Wren, writes an expose about Luke and Damien.
- Sabrina’s body is recovered from the water.
- Callie and Adrian are expecting a baby and Callie is finishing law school
Questions about Heather:
Heather is the name that Annabelle/Iris gives her daughter after she lays her to rest.
Yes, and he was the father of Jenna’s baby (Callie) and also of Annabelle’s (Heather). He was briefly a police officer and traded sex for dropping or overlooking criminal charges.
Damien did, and Frank disposed of the body in the lake.