The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

August 26, 2023

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

Memorial Day 1958. The citizens of Jewel, Minnesota, gather to remember those killed in the country's wars. But the festivities are interrupted when the body of a wealthy but unpopular resident is found floating in the river. Suicide, accident or murder? If it's murder, Sheriff Brody Dern has no shortage of suspected, since many locals had a reason to hate the victim.

This is a stand-alone novel, not part of the author's mystery series. The plot is complicated, and there are a lot of characters, so many that I started keeping a list of their relation to the dead man. The river is a character on its own, since so many scenes are enacted on its banks. Ultimately the story is about the human condition that we all share - almost all of the characters experience some kind of loneliness or alone-ness, and many are still traumatized by the wars of the the 20th century. While I didn't enjoy it as much as This Tender Land, it is still a remarkable novel, highly recommended to readers of literary fiction.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Minnesota river

Where the Dead Sleep by Joshua Moehling

August 17, 2023

Where the Dead Sleep by Joshua Moehling

When a local man is found shot to death in his bed, acting sheriff Ben Packard finds himself with plenty of suspects, including the man's family, friends, and neighbors. At the top of the list are the man's wife and his ex-wife, sisters who hate each other. At the same time, Packard is trying to decide whether to run for election for sheriff.

Good police procedural, second in the series. Tight plotting, fast pace that will keep you turning the pages. I guessed at some but not all of the players. Packard is a multi-faceted detective: he's very good at his job, he has a three-legged rescue Corgi named Frank, he is renovating his house himself, and he knows how to cook a spatchcocked chicken, all qualities that I like in a man. He's gay, but that doesn't bother me. There is some sex, but it's low-key and not enough to make me jealous. Looking forward to the next book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Minnesota lake

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

August 29, 2019

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

The year is 1932.  The Lincoln Indian Training School in Lincoln, Minnesota, is a school where hundreds of Native American children who had been taken away from their families are sent to forget their Native American languages and customs and learn to be “white.”  Children who spoke their own languages were beaten and put into solitary confinement until they learned to conform.  Thelma Brickman is the school superintendent and runs the school strictly for her own gain, stealing money, food, and gifts intended for the students.  She is cruel to all the children, but especially to the two orphaned O’Banion brothers, the only white children in the school.  After an evil groundskeeper at the school is killed, the brothers are forced to flee down the river, along with two of their friends.

I was hesitant at first to read this at first due to the subject matter (child abuse, cruelty to children, mistreatment of Native Americans), but it is so INCREDIBLY good!  It's almost 500 pages long, and I read it in three days.  I could not put it down since I had to find out what happened to Odie and his friends (one of my bad habits is reading when I should be cleaning or paying attention to the dogs).  The characters are all wonderful, even Faria the rat who lives in the school's solitary confinement cell.  Easily one of the best books that I'll read in 2019, and I cried when it ended partly because the whole story is so beautiful, and partly because it was over.  IMHO, much better than Where the Crawdads Sing.

This Tender Land will be published on September 3, 2019.  Go pre-order it from Amazon or get on the hold list at your local library.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in return for a review.