We’ve got John Sandford’s much-anticipated new thriller today, as well as two other worthy additions to the genre.

(Courtesy of Penguin Random House)
John Sanford. (Courtesy of Penguin Random House)

“Lethal Prey”: by John Sandford” (Putnam, $32)

As disturbing as the renewed investigation was, even more worrisome was the cops who were doing it — Davenport and Flowers. She’d never had either of them in court, but knew them by reputation. Flowers seemed to have x-ray vision when it came to solving crimes; Davenport seemed happy to shoot anyone involved. Neither was stupid and both were experienced. — from “Lethal Prey”

Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers take on a decades-old cold case in the 35th in John Sandford’s Prey series. After a dozen thrillers featuring Virgil Flowers, Sandford merged Flowers into the Prey books, much to the consternation of “that f—- Flowers” devoted fans. But the men work well together, with their skills complementing each other’s.

Davenport, a deputy U.S. marshal, and Flowers, who works for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, are tasked with finding the killer of Doris Grandfelt, an employee of an accounting firm whose body was dumped at the edge of an urban park in St. Paul. The killer was never found, partly because nobody knew where the crime took place.

Twenty years later, Doris’s twin sister Lara offers a $5 million reward to anyone who finds the killer. Davenport harnesses the power of the internet by bringing into the plot true-crime bloggers who compete with one another to be first to get news about the investigation online. So Davenport and Flowers use the help of a few of the best bloggers to research details of the old crime. The downside is that Davenport and Flowers, who hate publicity, are filmed by the bloggers and their faces are all over the true-crime sites.

Like all Prey thrillers, the reader knows the identity of the perp, who’s introduced in the first pages. The fun is watching Flowers and Davenport trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together after one of the bloggers discovers the murder weapon using a metal detector. Doris was not raped but her body was battered and the partners believe she was the victim of someone’s rage. They also learn how fallopian tubes can help pin down a woman’s time of death after sex, a typical Sandford piece of unusual information.

This is an odd entry in the Prey series. Davenport and Flowers are still quipping, but there’s a lot of driving around. The most exciting part is when someone torches the barn on the farm belonging to Flowers’ girlfriend Frankie. We expect a furious Flowers to eventually do some serious damage to the perp in an explosive encounter, but that never happens. And the story ends with a cliffhanger, which led some early readers to think they had been sent unfinished books. Sandford hardly needs an abrupt ending to persuade readers to look forward to this next book, since he’s already so popular that there is a fan site devoted to him and his thrillers. Some fans have read the entire series several times. So it will be interesting to see what Sandford devotees think of this one, which this reader gives a B-.

(Courtesy of the author)

“Ruby Red Flaws”: by Joe Golemo (Level Best Books, $16.95)

Joe Golemo (Courtesy of the author)

Now that Sheila’s body was covered, I turned to the MC and whispered, “This is obviously a murder, or she wouldn’t have been wired to the swing. The killer could still be somewhere in the building, and they may even be sitting here right now…” — from “Ruby Red Flaws”

It was an ugly sight. The corpse of the swing girl at Ruby Ray’s Supper Club in Lilydale along Highway 13  was wired onto her trapeze, one hand moving back and forth to the horror of the audience. Among the diners are Grayson Dyle, co-owner of a Twin Cities product design firm, and Kate, his bookkeeper girlfriend who works for Ray, the club owner and husband of the dead woman.

When it’s obvious the woman has been murdered, Kate races to the safe to be sure her employer’s big uncut ruby is still there. It isn’t, and law enforcement accuses Kate of the murder and stealing the ruby, found by Ray in Australia and displayed in an old museum next to the supper club.

Dyle, a nice guy who loves Kate, is determined to find the real killer to clear Kate’s name. He also has been asked by his biological father, a Catholic bishop, to look into a priest who is holding cult-like services at the supper club on Sunday mornings. (Dyle and his brother, who had been adopted, learned of their birth parents in “Design Flaw,” first in this series.)

As Grayson looks for the killer, a lot of information comes out about the rogue priest and the ruby of which of which Ray is so proud. Is there a real stone and a fake? Why would anyone kill Ray’s wife, who everyone admired? The supper club isn’t doing very well financially but can Ray sell the property to build condos overlooking the river that require variances?

Grayson is a likable sleuth, trying to do the best he can for everyone. And the author grounds his story in local color from having a little fun with Edina (“cake-eaters”) to a church that looks like St. James Evangelical Lutheran in West St. Paul and a salute to the real-life Diamond Jim’s club in a mall that is now the site of condos.

Golemo will be at a meet-and-greet from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at Once Upon a Crime mystery bookstore, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.

(Courtesy of the author)

“The Turtle-Jack Killings”: by Glenn Ickler (Outskirts Press, $21.95)

Glenn Ickler (Courtesy of the author)

The unexplained replacement of Jimmy Kimmel by Lady T, the TV personality, as the Winter Carnival’s guest of honor could mean that something very special of international importance was going on in the Twin Cities or in Minnesota in general. The presence of Lady T, the Interpol agent, told me that there had to be a major story to be uncovered here. — from “The Turtle-Jack Killings”

This is the 20th thriller featuring newspaper reporter Mitch Mitchell and photographer Alan Jeffrey written by a former editorial writer for the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press who lives near Boston. The two protagonists are such a close team that their editor refers to them as Siamese twins. The editor is told repeatedly the proper phrase is “conjoined twins,” but he doesn’t care. He just wants good copy before deadline.

Narrated in the first person by Mitch, it’s a story based on turtles; specifically, turtles that will die if a big mining company is allowed to drill for nickel near an American Indian reservation in northern Minnesota. If approved, the mining would drain wetlands and kill the turtles with which the Ojibwe have a special relationship.

When Mitch, Al and two other writers at the St. Paul Daily Dispatch are awarded hand-carved and painted little turtles at a ceremony on the reservation, a woman business writer holds up her turtle and announces that a thumb drive in the turtle’s stomach contains explosive information.

Soon the woman and another of the four colleagues at the ceremony are dead and Al’s home is trashed. Somebody wants that thumb drive.

The trail leads to northern Minnesota, where Al and Mitch interview bored miners waiting for word from the EPA  about whether the project will go ahead. Turns out there might be something more deadly than nickel in someone’s illegal plans. That’s why the intriguing character Lady T,  a Hungarian TV star who works for Interpol, is a guest at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Mitch and Al met the large lady in a previous book and she is a sort of fairy godmother and protector for them. (There’s a little story within the story here, with Mitch reading all the Treasure Hunt medallion clues, an invitation for readers to figure out the location.)

When Al and Mitch get too close to the secret, they’re “invited” at gunpoint to go ice fishing on a dark night, dressed in heavy clothes that will trap them under the ice. Even their hard-nosed editor might think that’s going a little too far for your job.

Some authors paint the media as an intrusive, uncouth pack of wolves. It’s nice to see the other side from an author who knows what he’s talking about.

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Women’s basketball has not slowed down at all this season as March Madness arrives.

A year ago, the women’s NCAA championship game drew a bigger television audience than the men’s title game for the first time, with an average of 18.9 million viewers watching undefeated South Carolina beat Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark. The question was whether some fans would step away as Clark, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and other standouts headed to the WNBA.

Instead, the women’s game has featured a compelling bunch of stars all over again, from Paige Bueckers at UConn to JuJu Watkins at USC, Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame and Madison Booker of Texas.

The season has been must-watch viewing for another reason, too: Parity. So far, four teams have held the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25, tying the mark for the most ever. That makes the tournament winner anyone’s guess after some terrific league title games shoved some teams onto the bubble.

Here’s the bracket for the women’s NCAA tournament:

How can I watch the tournament?

Every game of the women’s tournament will be aired — here is a schedule that will be updated with matchups — on ESPN’s networks and streaming services with select games on ABC.

Who are the favorites?

The top four betting favorites as the tournament approaches are (in order): defending champion South Carolina, UConn and crosstown rivals USC and UCLA, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

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Who is playing?

There are 31 automatic bids that go to conference champions and they are combined with 37 at-large picks by the NCAA selection committee. Bracket matchups are unveiled on Selection Sunday, March 16

When are the games?

The First Four matchups (March 19-20) and first- and second-round games (March 21-24) are on campus, with sites announced March 16.

Sweet 16 weekend (March 28-31) will see games in two sites once again: Birmingham, Alabama, and Spokane, Washington.

The Final Four is in Tampa, Florida, on Friday, April 4, with the championship game on Sunday, April 6.

Contributing: Associated Press

READINGS BY WRITERS: Hosts novelists Glenn R. Miller, Sally Franson, Julie Schumacher and Charles Baxter. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, University Club, 420 Summit Ave., St. Paul.

 

Ethan Rutherford (Courtesy of the author)

ETHAN RUTHERFORD: Introduces his debut novel, “North Sun: Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther,” in conversation with Matt Burgess. Rutherford, who holds a master’s in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, has published two story collections. He teaches at Trinity College in Connecticut. 6 p.m. Wednesday, Moon Palace Books, 3032 Minnehaha Ave., Mpls.

THREE POETS: Launch reading for Donna Isaac’s “In the Tilling” and Stanley Kusonoki’s “Social Studies,” with Janna Kittel (“Real Work”).  1 p.m. March 23, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.

NIALL WILLIAMS: Discusses “Time of the Child: A Novel,” in conversation with former Star Tribune books editor Laurie Hertzel. 7 p.m. Monday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

What else is going on

Rain Taxi Review of Books announces a new date and venue for the journal’s free Twin Cities Book Festival. The 25th anniversary of the state’s oldest and largest book-focused gathering will be Nov. 8 at the Union Depot in St. Paul instead of the previous venue at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Rain Taxi editor and festival director Eric Lorberer assures fans that changes will not affect core features: a book fair with publishers, literary organizations, magazines, writing programs, literacy advocates and antiquarian booksellers as well as multiple stages with author readings, talks and activities for all ages. Stay tuned for more news to come.

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Lake of the Woods has a well-deserved reputation for producing big pike through the ice as winter gives way to spring, but after nearly three hours of tip-up fishing without a flag, Alan Peterson could have been excused for wondering if this was going to be one of those days.

Instead, he drilled more holes in 5 to 10 feet of water, hoping the small moves eventually would put the bait in front of a fish and serve up the opportunity to yell “Flag!” — the tell-tale cry that a toothy critter had found the bait to its liking.

That, in a nutshell, is the essence of late-winter tip-up fishing, which is as much a social occasion as an exercise in trying to catch a fish. And on this perfect Sunday morning that teased of approaching spring — complete with the first swan sighting of the season — catching a pike or two would be a bonus.

There’d be time for coffee, venison sticks and conversation as we waited.

“I would consider good tip-up fishing to be 15 legitimate flags,” said Peterson, of Warroad. “I commit to five hours, so if I go for five hours and I get between 12 and 15 flags, I consider that to be pretty good.

“If you get more than that, it’s a treat. And if you get a 40-inch pike, that’s what you came out for.”

About the tip-up

Alan Peterson of Warroad, Minn., unwinds a hand-tied northern pike rig Sunday, March 9, 2025, while setting up for a few hours of tip-up fishing on Lake of the Woods. (Brad Dokken / Grand Forks Herald)

tip-up, for the uninitiated, is a fishing device with a flag that “tips up” to signal a strike. Old-school tip-ups usually consist of a submerged spool that attaches to a frame that is set over the hole in the ice, with a flag that clips on the spool to keep the bait at a set depth.

When a fish hits and pulls on the line, the spool turns and triggers the flag to “tip up,” signaling a strike; the angler then fights the fish using a hand-over-hand technique. Newer tip-ups integrate rods and reels into the design, allowing anglers more flexibility in playing the fish.

Peterson uses some of each tip-up style. Either way, every time a flag flies, the fish at the end of the line could be something special.

No wonder, then, that Peterson is on Lake of the Woods chasing pike at every opportunity once March rolls around.

“That’s one of the beautiful things about tip-up fishing,” he said. “You can go five hours (without a flag), and then your last hour, it can be so good. You can have 10 flags, and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘we can’t leave right now.’ ”

Home to the outdoors

A 2013 graduate of Warroad High School, Peterson, 30, has an office job at Marvin, the window and door manufacturer in Warroad. After spending five years working at the Marvin facility in Fargo and attending Minnesota State University Moorhead, he had an opportunity to come home about a year and a half ago.

Peterson, his girlfriend Mandy, and their black Lab Gracie, have a house on 15 acres just a hop and a skip from Lake of the Woods. Before living in Fargo, he spent four years at the University of Minnesota Duluth. The original plan was to become a chiropractor, Peterson says, but it didn’t work out “so I gave it up for an opportunity in Alaska.”

He worked as a fishing guide in southeast Alaska for the 2018 guide season.

The opportunity to move home to Warroad wasn’t something he expected, Peterson says, but living back in northern Minnesota has been a perfect fit with his outdoors lifestyle.

“I’m spoiled,” he said. “I’m spoiled living up here. If I want to go catch walleyes after work, I just throw my kicker boat in and I go.”

Peterson didn’t do much ice fishing for walleyes and saugers growing up, but he caught the pike fishing bug at an early age.

“I love pike fishing,” he said. “I would just look forward to spring so I could tip-up fish late in the year, and then when the water would open, I’d fish pike right in front of the Warroad River for three weeks.

“I’ve always been bit by pike fishing; it’s one of my favorite things to do.”

New YouTube channel

Earlier this year, Peterson launched a YouTube channel he dubbed “North of Highway 2,” in which he shares stories and snapshots of life in northern Minnesota. Fishing content factors into the mix, of course, but the channel also includes thrift store trips, cooking, skiing and other outdoor recreation and three- to four-minute “Walk and Talk Wednesday” segments, in which Peterson and his black Lab, Gracie, stroll down the driveway while he talks about various aspects of northern life.

Gardening will be among the video segments on tap for this summer, Peterson says. To date, the channel has about 170 subscribers, and clips have drawn anywhere from about 100 views to more than 9,000 views for a video in which Peterson documents whiteout conditions on Lake of the Woods.

The whole point of the channel, Peterson says, was to spend less time consuming content and more time getting out there to create content. Despite being a relative YouTube newcomer, Peterson’s videos are entertaining, well-produced and informative. He definitely knows his way around his camera and editing software.

“My whole point in making the channel wasn’t to get a bunch of followers and views,” he said. “I’ve always wanted an excuse to buy a GoPro, so I bought a GoPro and just started doing it.”

Creating videos also is “pretty time intensive,” Peterson says.

“One video a week is a big ask, but it’s fun,” he said. “It’s a way to disconnect from work, too, and I enjoy it. My dog likes it, too, because I’m outside more.”

Going forward, Peterson says he plans to scale back his “Walk and Talk Wednesday” segments to every other week.

“One thing I told myself when I started this was I was not going to burn myself out,” he said. “I’m doing this just because I want to have fun, and I want to make videos and document (life in northern Minnesota). If it starts to be like a job and it’s consuming all my time, I’m going to tone it back a little bit.”

On the ice

Typically, Peterson says, tip-up fishing gets better as temperatures rise and days grow longer, triggering the instinct for pike to stage near the mouths of streams and shallow bays to spawn.

So far, he says, the best pike fishing has been in the morning, but that wasn’t the case on this day. It was high noon when the first flag popped, “which completely contradicts my theory,” Peterson said.

The fish that tripped the first flag appeared to be a decent pike, but it spit the bait before Peterson could get it to the hole.

“Hopefully, that’s a good sign,” he said. “We’ve stuck it out all morning. I think we’re due for a few more flags.”

He was right; the next flag popped half an hour later. Peterson picked up the rod, set the hook and the battle was on.

“It’s big,” Peterson said as the rod bent toward the hole. “All I know is it’s big.”

Then it appeared at the top of the hole, a huge toothy head followed some 3 feet of feisty flopping northern pike.

It was easily his biggest of the winter so far, he said. Big pike have a completely different look than smaller members of the species, and this fish was strikingly beautiful.

“This is a huge pike,” Peterson said, admiring the fish. “Oh, my gosh.”

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He’d left his tape measure at home, but there was enough pike extending beyond his 34½-inch ice fishing rod to safely say the fish was at least 40 inches long. A few quick photos, and Peterson released the pike to hopefully make someone else’s day.

The temperature had risen past 40 degrees when we decided to reel up the lines a short time later and call it a few hours well-spent. By nature’s calendar, the best pike fishing of the season was yet to come, providing the ice holds up; pike season is continuous on Lake of the Woods.

After that, it will be time for spring sturgeon fishing on the Rainy River, open-water pike fishing, the Minnesota walleye opener, lake trout fishing in Ontario, spring hunts for morel mushrooms and a garden to plant.

So much to do and — for Peterson — so close by.

“I love the variety,” he said. “New activities just happen all the time.”

That’s life “North of Highway 2.”