Duluth Superior Magazine / January 2012 / Novels By Fantastic Local Authors

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Novels By Fantastic Local Authors

One of the best things about getting my book published last year has been meeting other Minnesota authors, people whose work I’ve long admired. Here are the latest books by three authors who I’m proud to call friends.

The Lost Women of Lost Lake (A Jane Lawless Mystery)
Ellen Hart
2011, Minotaur

Restaurateur and part-time private detective Jane Lawless travels to Thunderhook Lodge — the premier resort on Lost Lake in the northwoods — to help the owner, her friend Tess, tend to things after Tess takes a nasty fall. Good thing, too, because a mystery crops up while she’s there. A journalist arrives with an old photograph and some intrusive questions for Tess about events that happened in Chicago decades earlier — events that Tess would just as soon forget. It’s a story about consequences of decisions and actions, and how the past influences the present no matter how much you wish it wouldn’t. Beautifully written, this story has a complex plot with twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Highway 61 (A McKenzie Novel)
David Housewright
2011, Minotaur

Rushmore McKenzie is a former cop from St. Paul who occasionally investigates crimes. But he’s not so sure about looking into his latest case because it just so happens to involve the ex-husband of his current lady love. Awkward! But apparently, this ex-husband, Jason, is in serious trouble and needs McKenzie’s help. Driving up Highway 61 (yes, our Highway 61) from St. Paul to Canada, Jason met a girl, blacked out, and woke up several hours later in a strange motel room… with the girl’s dead body lying on the floor next to him. Jason high-tails it out of there and breathes a sigh of relief when nothing comes of it for awhile, but then threatening text messages start appearing on his cell phone. He realizes he’s being blackmailed, and it’s up to McKenzie to find out who is behind the murder and the blackmail, and why.

Northwest Angle
William Kent Krueger
2011, Atria

Cork O’Conner, a former county sheriff in the Minnesota northwoods, is vacationing with his family on a houseboat on Lake of the Woods. Sounds like an idyllic time, but things go terribly wrong when he and daughter Jenny set sail in a small boat to look at some of the area’s hieroglyphics, and an unexpected, severe storm crops up, separating Cork and Jenny from the others. They take shelter on a small island, only to discover the body of a teenage girl, of Native American descent, who has been brutally murdered. They also find a baby, alive. Is the murderer lurking nearby? Why kill the mother and leave the baby alive? These and many other unanswered questions follow Cork and Jenny as they try to solve this mystery and keep this child safe. This is an emotional story with a strong and spiritual Native American subtext and an ultra-suspenseful plot that will keep you turning the pages.