When the body of Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, it sets off an irreversible chain of events that forever changes lives in Black Earth County in southwestern Minnesota in 1958. Quinn, one of the rural county’s wealthiest landowners, was a cruel man whose death comes as a relief to most of his neighbors. But before Sherriff Brody Dern even examines the crime scene, prejudices influence townspeople to pin the murder on Noah Bluestone, a war vet, and a Dakota Sioux whose ancestor first owned Quinn’s land. As Brody continues to investigate, tensions rise and a myriad of secrets come to light about his neighbors – even as Brody desperately tries to conceal his own dark past. Can Brody get to the truth of Quinn’s death before innocent people begin to turn against one another?
With a cast of exquisitely drawn characters, most of whom are still haunted by World War II, The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger is part police procedural, part exploration of small town life in 1950’s Minnesota. With vivid descriptive and a gripping narrative that you’ll want to savor, this novel is Krueger at his most skilled. Pick up a copy today!
-Carol
Read it or Weep 