Where did the summer go? It’s time for a preview of fall/winter fiction and nonfiction by Minnesota authors and publishers. Thrillers/crime top the list followed by memoirs and history. (This is a clip-and-save list of books too new to be reviewed. Some information comes from the publishers.)
(Courtesy of Atria Books)
William Kent Krueger (Diane Krueger / Simon & Schuster)
Let’s start with William Kent Krueger”s “Apostle’s Cove” (Atria Books), 20th in Krueger’s bestselling Cork O’Connor series and one of the most anticipated novels of the season.
But Daniel didn’t move. “What if it all goes south, Cork? For Jenny or you or me or Waaboo? The Windigo’s out there. It’s hungry.” He turned and gave Cork a cold stare. “And God alone knows who it’s come for.” — from “Apostle’s Cove”
Aphrodite McGill was found kneeling by the bloody corpse of her daughter, Chastity, 25 years ago when Cork O’Connor, newly elected sheriff of Tamarack County, sent Axel Boshey to prison for his wife Chastity’s murder. Even after the conviction, Cork was never sure the Ojibwe man was guilty.
Now Cork, who’s glumly approaching his 60th birthday in northern Minnesota, gets a call from his son, Stephen, who’s working for the Innocence Project in the Twin Cities. He believes Boshey was unjustly incarcerated and urges his father to reopen the case.
The first half of the story takes place in the past when Cork is married to his first wife, Jo, a lawyer who’s pregnant with Stephen after giving birth to their two daughters. This is a way for Krueger to introduce this family to new readers and refresh the memories of devoted fans who know what is in store for them. Henry Meloux, for instance, an Ojibwe elder and healer and Cork’s mentor, is only in his 70s.
The second part takes place in the present, as Cork reluctantly begins a new investigation into Boshey’s incarceration, even though the man doesn’t want to be released from prison. Cork is helped by his daughter Jenny, an author who is looking for a good story. There isn’t much for Cork to go on and he isn’t getting help from those who were involved in the case. He is married to Rainy, full-blood Ojibwe and niece of Henry, who’s now around 100.
As the investigation continues, Cork is led to Aphrodite McGill, one of the most compelling characters in this long series. A woman who has a notorious reputation around the town of Aurora, she lives in an opulent home on Apostle’s Cove. She’s known for hosting wild parties for adults and her easy ways with men. After her daughter Charity is murdered, she will do anything to get control of her grandchildren, even though she’s not grandmother material.
As Cork goes deeper into the past and danger to his family increases, his grandson Waaboo (Little Rabbit), who sometimes has foresight, says the Ojibwe monster Windigo is on the prowl, hungry for humans.
As in his previous O’Connor books, Krueger pays respect to Ojibwe culture. And his depiction of sexy Aphrodite’s Halloween party at her Shangri-La estate provides the story’s biggest thrills. Kudos to him for smoothly integrating past and present while highlighting Cork’s love of his family. Every character is drawn precisely and it’s good to know that old Henry is still with us and Sam’s Place, Cork’s burger joint, is still going strong. And no reader is going to forget Aphrodite.
Krueger embarks on a multi-state reading tour this week. Here are his metro-area appearances:
Wednesday, 6 p.m., Whittier Recreation Center, 425 W. 25th St., Mpls., presented by Once Upon a Crime mystery bookstore; Sept. 4, 7 p.m. Barnes & Noble, 2100 N. Snelling Ave., Roseville; Sept. 5, 10 a.m.-noon, Lake Country Booksellers, 4766 Washington Square, White Bear Lake; Sept. 8, 6 p.m., Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul; 5 p.m. Sept. 10, Totally Criminal Cocktail Hour, Grand Banquet Ballroom, 301 Second St. S., Stillwater, presented by Valley Bookseller; 7 p.m. Sept. 15, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul; 2 p.m. Oct. 19, Big Hill Books, 405 Penn Ave. S., Mpls.
Here’s what else is in store for readers.
SEPTEMBER
Fiction
(Courtesy of Penguin Random House)
“Boy From the North Country”: by Sam Sussman (Penguin Press) — A debut novel from a Manhattan-based author about a son returning home to his dying mother to discover the truth of his origins and the secrets of a woman whose life and wisdom he is only beginning to understand, including her relationship with musician Bob Dylan and the narrator’s uncanny resemblance to Dylan. It is loosely tied to Sussman’s own uncertain celebrity paternity and connection to Minnesota native Bob Dylan, born in Minnesota’s north country. Based on the author’s memoir essay “The Silent Type: On (Possibly) Being Bob Dylan’s Son,” published in Harper’s magazine in 2021 and available online.
(Courtesy of Crooked Lane Books)
“The Deepest Cut”: by P.J. Tracy (Crooked Lane) — The cyber-sleuth Monkeewrench gang is back in their 11th thriller, which finds them threatened by two homicidal maniacs who escape prisons; one has an eight-person kill list that includes the Monkeewrenchers, who operate out of a St. Paul mansion. They work with Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi, who is about to retire, and food-loving Gino Rolseth. These quirky characters work together (with lots of funny dialogue) to stop the plan of vengeance. Also, love is in the air in the Monkeewrench mansion. (5 p.m. Sept. 3, Totally Criminal Cocktail Hour, Lowell Inn, Stillwater, ticketed event presented by Valley Bookseller; 6:30 p.m. Sept. 9, Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.)
(Courtesy of Crooked Lane)
“Last One Seen”: by Rebecca Kanner (Crooked Lane) — A woman fights her own mind and memory to understand how she ended up in the passenger seat of a car speeding away from a murder scene in this dual-timeline psychological thriller. (Launch at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 23, Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.)
“Life, & Death & Giants”: by Ron Rindo (St. Martin’s Press) — No one in Lakota, Wis., knows what to make of Gabriel Fisher, who walks at 8 months old, communicates with animals and has prolific athletic abilities. When his brother dies, his Amish grandparents, disapproving of the attention he is getting, hide him away from the English world. When he’s nearly 8 feet tall, he’s discovered by a football coach, leading to events that transform Gabriel’s life and the lives of everyone he meets. The author teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
(Courtesy of McSweeney’s)
“Martha’s Daughter”: by David Haynes (McSweeney) — The first short-story collection from Haynes, who began his writing career in St. Paul, where he was an elementary school teacher. This is the first time his stories have been published in one volume. They range widely, from a rundown motel and its long-term guests to the title story about the first hours after a woman finds out her mother has died.
(Courtesy of Hyperion Teens)
“Seven for a Secret”: by Mary E. Roach (Hyperion) — In the town of Ava Island there was a group home for girls no one cared about. Over the course of six months, eight of them disappeared. But one did not. She wants to put what happened to her in the forest behind her, but six years later the men running the group home are turning up dead.
“Trigger Warning”: by Jacinda Townsend (Graywolf Press) — A woman who is no stranger to loss (a brother who died, a father murdered by the police, her house burned down) is in the midst of a divorce. She takes her child on a cross-country road trip to California where she’s confronted by her estranged sister and the past that haunts them. The author teaches at Brown University in Rhode Island.
(Courtesy of Atlantic Crime)
“The Whisper Place”: by Mindy Mejia (Atlantic Crime) — Third book in the bestselling Iowa Mysteries thriller series featuring Max Summerlin and Jonah Kendrick, an unlikely pair of private investigators who specialize in finding people who don’t want to be found. In this one they investigate the disappearance of a woman whose past holds a dangerous secret. (Launch at 7 p.m. Sept. 16, Wooden Hill Brewing, 7421 Bush Lake Road, Edina, presented by Once Upon a Crime.)
Nonfiction
“Her Place in the Woods: The Life of Helen Hoover”: by David Hakensen (University of Minnesota Press) — The first complete biography of Hoover, whose stories of life in the northern Minnesota wilderness were widely published during the 1950s through the 1970s. Leaving a corporate career in Chicago, Hoover moved to a small cabin without electricity or running water, finding a place for herself in what she described as the world of her time. (Launch at 7 p.m. Sept. 30, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.)
“Sugar Bush Babies: Stories of My Ojibwe Grandmother”: by Janis A. Fairbanks (University of Minnesota Press) — This memoir from a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa revisits her life during Indian relocation from reservations to urban areas, from Ojibwe villages to white communities whose ideas about Indians come from Hollywood westerns, grounded in the wisdom she learned from her grandmother.
OCTOBER
Fiction
“The High Heaven”: by Joshua Wheeler (Graywolf Press) — In this multi-genre story, Izzy is orphaned on the first night of the first Apollo space mission and taken in by a struggling rancher trying to keep his mind from falling apart as NASA rocket tests encroach on his land. Izzy’s life moves from tragedy on the ranch through addiction, meeting eccentrics, and counseling people who have lost the ability to see the moon. The author teaches at Louisiana State University.
(Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)
“The House On Rondo”: by Debra J. Stone (University of Minnesota Press) — In this middle-grade fiction, Zenobia is spending the summer at her grandparents’ St. Paul home as eviction notices spread through the neighborhood when work on the Interstate 94 freeway begins. As Zenobia learns what this means for displaced residents, she discovers how her story intertwines with the history of her family going back to her great-grandmother and learns the consequences of taking a stand against the unseen government forces destroying a thriving Black community.
“The Mind Reels”: by Fredrik deBoer (Coffee House Press) — In this debut novel highlighting mental illness, deBoer, who has written about his struggle with bipolar disorder, writes of Alice losing her mind in her dorm room after drunken hook-ups and roommate fights. So begins a march of lithium, antidepressants and Klonopin, doctors and therapists as Alice descends deeper into chaos.
“Photograph”: by Brian Freeman (Blackstone Publishing) — Although bestselling Freeman has moved to Florida, we will always consider him a Minnesota author because his career began here. His new thriller is an emotional cold case of hidden identities.
“The Naming of Aki”: by Thomas Peacock (Minnesota Historical Society Press) — Retelling of a traditional Ojibwe story that celebrates what First Human and First Wolf see, taste, hear, smell and touch as they wander Aki, the Earth, to be the namer of things.
“Leaf Town Forever”: by Kathleen Rooney and Beth Rooney, illustrated by Betsy Bowen (University of Minnesota Press) — Picture book based on a true story about a Midwestern “town” created by children using leaves, sticks, and their imaginations.
NOVEMBER
(Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)
“Mysterious Tales of Old Minneapolis”: by Larry Millett (University of Minnesota Press) — Three tales of intrigue and murder in historic Minneapolis, introducing three unlikely but talented new detectives bringing the 19th-century city to life from the St. Paul author of 10 crime novels featuring Sherlock Holmes and sleuth Shad Rafferty.
(Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)
“What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Weirder and Harder to Relate To”: by Mary Lucia (University of Minnesota Press) — The author, a media broadcast personality, writer, actor and voiceover artist, tells her personal story of what it’s like to be in the public spotlight when it might get you killed. As a rock DJ, Lucia dealt with many fans, but for one listener that connection became a dangerous obsession, leading to Lucia’s three-year nightmare. (7 p.m. Dec 9, Granada Theater, 3022 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls., presented by University of Minnesota Press and Magers & Quinn bookstore.)
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