Paper Ghosts_A Novel of Suspense
by Julia Heaberlin
A Texas map marked with three red dots like drops of blood. A serial killer who claims to have dementia. A mysterious young woman who wants answers. What could go wrong?
“A rich hybrid work that’s at once . . . a murder mystery, a road novel, a pair of psychological case studies and a meditation on photography.”—The Sunday Times (U.K.), Thriller of the Month
An obsessive young woman has been waiting half her life—since she was twelve years old—for this moment. She has planned. Researched. Trained. Imagined every scenario. Now she is almost certain the man who kidnapped and murdered her sister sits in the passenger seat beside her.
Carl Louis Feldman is a documentary photographer who may or may not have dementia—and may or may not be a serial killer. The young woman claims to be his long-lost daughter. He doesn’t believe her. He claims no memory of murdering girls across Texas, in a string of places where he shot eerie pictures. She doesn’t believe him.
Determined to find the truth, she lures him out of a halfway house and proposes a dangerous idea: a ten-day road trip, just the two of them, to examine cold cases linked to his haunting photographs.
Is he a liar or a broken old man? Is he a pathological con artist? Or is she? In Paper Ghosts, Julia Heaberlin once again swerves the serial killer genre in a new direction. You won’t see the final, terrifying twist spinning your way until the very last mile.
Advance praise for *Paper Ghosts*
“I kept thinking of [Patricia] Highsmith while reading Paper Ghosts. . . . [Julia] Heaberlin anchors her books with troubled but endearingly badass women. Think Amy Schumer’s character in Trainwreck except with guns and the greater possibility of redemption. . . . Like Highsmith, Heaberlin displays a keen grasp of casual cruelty that defines human interaction, not to mention a flair for stories in which no one—least of all the protagonist—can be trusted. . . . Texas has yet again bred a major American noir writer.”—*D Magazine*
“[An] artful and elegiac psychological thriller . . . The author wields words like weapons, with each one chosen to heighten tension, underscore emotion, or foreshadow doom. . . . Heaberlin brilliantly combines travelogue with a heartbreaking portrait of the damage done by childhood.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
**Review
“[An] artful and elegiac psychological thriller . . . The author wields words like weapons, with each one chosen to heighten tension, underscore emotion, or foreshadow doom. . . . [Julia] Heaberlin brilliantly combines travelogue with a heartbreaking portrait of the damage done by childhood.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Paper Ghosts is an exceptional read, with a deftly woven plot—a book to devour in one sitting. This is breathless storytelling at its very best, with a deeply satisfying ending that will give book groups—and all your friends, when you recommend it—much to discuss.”—Elizabeth Haynes, New York Times bestselling author of Into the Darkest Corner
*
“This book haunted me. The writing is beautiful and chilling, laced with a subtle dark humor, and the multiple twists build to a perfect icy shiver of an ending. I loved it!”—C. J. Tudor, author of The Chalk Man
“Paper Ghosts* is a stunner: a creepy, complicated thriller that crawls under your skin from the outset and burrows deeper with every page; the kind of ‘there’s no way this is going to end well’ story in which you know that what the character is doing is a very, very bad idea but you can’t look away. It’s a chilling, nuanced, just-one-more-page novel from a master of psychological suspense. Highly recommended!”—Karen Dionne, author of The Marsh King’s Daughter
“With prose as sharp and flinty as the book’s protagonist, Paper Ghosts* takes a deep dive into the murky well of moral ambiguity, as one woman’s obsession with her missing sister collides with a serial killer’s dementia over the course of a thrill-packed road trip deep into the heart of Texas. This novel brilliantly asks you to question everything you see (and don’t see) around you.”—Nina Sadowsky, author of Just Fall and The Burial Society
“The heroine of Paper Ghosts* cons a suspected serial killer claiming dementia into joining her on a road trip, in the hope of triggering his memories—and confessions—of what happened to several missing women. Their journey hurtles through Heaberlin’s vivid Texas toward a surprising and satisfying conclusion, guided by clues in enigmatic photographs. The trip is engrossing, tense, and tightly written, with a luminous sense of place.”—Emily Winslow, author of the Keene and Frohmann mysteries
“Paper Ghosts is the spellbinding, brilliantly original story of a young woman desperate to find her missing sister and the man who she suspects knows the truth, joined together on a perilous journey as elusive and mysterious as the paper ghosts that lure them. Julia Heaberlin’s love for Texas spills across every page.”—Carla Buckley, author of *The Good Goodbye*
About the Author
Julia Heaberlin is an award-winning journalist. She has also edited numerous real-life thriller stories, including a series on the perplexing and tragic murders of girls buried in the Mexican desert and another on domestic violence. She lives with her husband and son in Texas. Black-Eyed Susans was a Sunday Times Top Five bestseller.
“A rich hybrid work that’s at once . . . a murder mystery, a road novel, a pair of psychological case studies and a meditation on photography.”—The Sunday Times (U.K.), Thriller of the Month
An obsessive young woman has been waiting half her life—since she was twelve years old—for this moment. She has planned. Researched. Trained. Imagined every scenario. Now she is almost certain the man who kidnapped and murdered her sister sits in the passenger seat beside her.
Carl Louis Feldman is a documentary photographer who may or may not have dementia—and may or may not be a serial killer. The young woman claims to be his long-lost daughter. He doesn’t believe her. He claims no memory of murdering girls across Texas, in a string of places where he shot eerie pictures. She doesn’t believe him.
Determined to find the truth, she lures him out of a halfway house and proposes a dangerous idea: a ten-day road trip, just the two of them, to examine cold cases linked to his haunting photographs.
Is he a liar or a broken old man? Is he a pathological con artist? Or is she? In Paper Ghosts, Julia Heaberlin once again swerves the serial killer genre in a new direction. You won’t see the final, terrifying twist spinning your way until the very last mile.
Advance praise for *Paper Ghosts*
“I kept thinking of [Patricia] Highsmith while reading Paper Ghosts. . . . [Julia] Heaberlin anchors her books with troubled but endearingly badass women. Think Amy Schumer’s character in Trainwreck except with guns and the greater possibility of redemption. . . . Like Highsmith, Heaberlin displays a keen grasp of casual cruelty that defines human interaction, not to mention a flair for stories in which no one—least of all the protagonist—can be trusted. . . . Texas has yet again bred a major American noir writer.”—*D Magazine*
“[An] artful and elegiac psychological thriller . . . The author wields words like weapons, with each one chosen to heighten tension, underscore emotion, or foreshadow doom. . . . Heaberlin brilliantly combines travelogue with a heartbreaking portrait of the damage done by childhood.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
**Review
“[An] artful and elegiac psychological thriller . . . The author wields words like weapons, with each one chosen to heighten tension, underscore emotion, or foreshadow doom. . . . [Julia] Heaberlin brilliantly combines travelogue with a heartbreaking portrait of the damage done by childhood.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Paper Ghosts is an exceptional read, with a deftly woven plot—a book to devour in one sitting. This is breathless storytelling at its very best, with a deeply satisfying ending that will give book groups—and all your friends, when you recommend it—much to discuss.”—Elizabeth Haynes, New York Times bestselling author of Into the Darkest Corner
*
“This book haunted me. The writing is beautiful and chilling, laced with a subtle dark humor, and the multiple twists build to a perfect icy shiver of an ending. I loved it!”—C. J. Tudor, author of The Chalk Man
“Paper Ghosts* is a stunner: a creepy, complicated thriller that crawls under your skin from the outset and burrows deeper with every page; the kind of ‘there’s no way this is going to end well’ story in which you know that what the character is doing is a very, very bad idea but you can’t look away. It’s a chilling, nuanced, just-one-more-page novel from a master of psychological suspense. Highly recommended!”—Karen Dionne, author of The Marsh King’s Daughter
“With prose as sharp and flinty as the book’s protagonist, Paper Ghosts* takes a deep dive into the murky well of moral ambiguity, as one woman’s obsession with her missing sister collides with a serial killer’s dementia over the course of a thrill-packed road trip deep into the heart of Texas. This novel brilliantly asks you to question everything you see (and don’t see) around you.”—Nina Sadowsky, author of Just Fall and The Burial Society
“The heroine of Paper Ghosts* cons a suspected serial killer claiming dementia into joining her on a road trip, in the hope of triggering his memories—and confessions—of what happened to several missing women. Their journey hurtles through Heaberlin’s vivid Texas toward a surprising and satisfying conclusion, guided by clues in enigmatic photographs. The trip is engrossing, tense, and tightly written, with a luminous sense of place.”—Emily Winslow, author of the Keene and Frohmann mysteries
“Paper Ghosts is the spellbinding, brilliantly original story of a young woman desperate to find her missing sister and the man who she suspects knows the truth, joined together on a perilous journey as elusive and mysterious as the paper ghosts that lure them. Julia Heaberlin’s love for Texas spills across every page.”—Carla Buckley, author of *The Good Goodbye*
About the Author
Julia Heaberlin is an award-winning journalist. She has also edited numerous real-life thriller stories, including a series on the perplexing and tragic murders of girls buried in the Mexican desert and another on domestic violence. She lives with her husband and son in Texas. Black-Eyed Susans was a Sunday Times Top Five bestseller.