Psychotherapy in a sweat lodge

When Dan Conrad said he was reading Vermillion Drift by William Kent Krueger, I asked him to let me know how he liked it. He did.
 
One: I was pretty sure he'd like the book. Krueger is a very good story teller.

Two: Krueger is such a good story teller that when sets out to write about suspense and danger, he can keep me from sleeping.

When I wrote about Thunder Bay three years ago, I noted that there were "frightening moments" and murders. The action in Boundary Waters kept me reading through a bunch of implausibilites a few months later. Nearly a year later, I almost didn't make it through Mercy Falls, but I was up at the lake and could get by without much sleep that night.

A few months ago, I noticed a review of one of Krueger's new books that was set in the wilderness of the northern border of Minnesota. It seemed to involve the main character and his daughter, stranded by a huge storm and hunted by someone evil. I said to myself, "No thanks."

That's why I wanted to know what Dan thought of Vermillion Drift. Dan was right that most of the murder, mayhem, and threat happened half a century before the primary story. As a retrospective, the resolutions of the old mysteries were less frightening. The main character does have to resolve some issues involving repressed memories and the childhood loss of his father, but those didn't keep me awake at night. I was especially impressed by B. Morrison's observation (in her blog linked below) that the absence of physical threats and danger allowed Krueger to focus on emotional conflicts and their resolutions.

It's a very well-told story. The bits and pieces fit together and the only improbabilities involve the aged Native American "witch," who is a long-time friend and father figure to the main character. I can live with that. I really liked reading Krueger's story telling in this book.

I discovered I missed another of his books along the way. It's referenced in Vermillion Drift. In that unnamed book, the main character's wife (an important part of the earlier books) is killed in a plane crash, and the widowed main character becomes prey as he searches for the wilderness site of the crash. I doubt I'll go back and read that one.

Have you read Vermillion Drift? Have you another of Krueger's books to recommend? Or recommend that we avoid? Write and tell this little bit of the world.

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• The author's web site
• An unsigned reveiw at Rhapsody in Books
• Another unsigned review at The Mystery Starts Here
• B. Morrison's review on her blog

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A twofer

Dan Conrad mentioned he was reading a William Kent Krueger novel. I've enjoyed a couple of Krueger's books, but found others too intense for my bedtime reading. (If I can't get to sleep after reading a chapter or two, I know I won't enjoy the rest of the story. Yes, I know I could read before 9:00 pm and do it in a chair instead of in bed, but that would require a yoga-like flexibility that I have trouble with.)

Dan was reading Vermillion Drift, and I asked him to let me know what he thought of it. He did and added a bonus.

You asked me to write and tell you what I thought of William Krueger’s Vermillion Drift. What I think is that it is a well written, highly engaging and satisfying tale. There was some of the gruesomeness you noted in his other books, but since it mostly took place 40 years earlier it was not particularly disturbing. I enjoyed the novel, and particularly that the main character’s links to the Native American community and culture are critical to unraveling the mystery.

Now, that's what I like to hear. I think I'll add this to my "to read" list.

Then Dan added:

But that’s not really why I’m writing. I next picked up another book from the library and began reading. What happened next, occurs about once in a hundred books. About 1:30 a.m. I looked at my watch and said: “It doesn’t matter. There’s no way I can go to sleep until I’ve finished.” And so I read on to the end. The book is titled The Boy In The Suitcase by two Danish women, Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis, and is the first of their “Nina Borg” series to be translated into English.

Nina Borg is a Red Cross nurse in Denmark, but that has little to do with the story which is about her going to a public locker at the request of a friend and finding there a three year old boy, naked and drugged, in a suitcase!

The rest of the story is told in a series of short chapters, each chronicling the actions of the four or five main characters. Unlike some such frameworks, each chapter moves the story forward and never feels like sidestepping or going backward. Gradually you learn the who, how and why as you move, with rapidly increasing pace, to the denouement. If and when the next in the series is translated, I will have my reservation in on the first day!

Now, there's a great recommendation. The Boy In The Suitcase is also going on my "to-read" list, and probably above Vermillion Drift. Have you read either of these? How did you react? Write and tell this little bit of the world what you thought.

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• Krueger's web page for Vermillion Drift
• Andy Plonka's reveiw at The Mystery Reader
• An unsigned review at Rhaposody in Books
• B. Morrison's review in her blog
• Marilyn Stasio mentions Vermillion Drift in her New York Times Book Review column

• Richard Lipez's review of The Boy in the Suitcase from The Washington Post
• Hugh Ryan's review in The Daily Beast
• Noah Cruickshank's review of The Boy in the Suitcase at the A.V. Club

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On the left are links to buy books. On the right are links to buy e-books.

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Supervillains and brave guys

When I think of supervillains, I think of fantasy characters like Lex Luthor and Dr. No. Usually I think of them in association with fantasy heroes like Superman and James Bond.

So, recently I read books with supervillains as primary characters. But opposite them there were no superheroes. There were brave people (not necessarily wise, but brave), but not super heroes.

Over the recent long weekend at the wonderful cabin called Sidetrack, I read William Kent Krueger's Mercy Falls and C. J. Box's Nowhere to Run (or Now Here to Run?). Both books are centered on long-running characters: Krueger's Cork O'Connor and Box's Joe Pickett. Both of these brave guys are nearly overwhelmed by supervillains. In fact, it's not entirely clear why either of them survived past the middle of the book about them.

Both plots involve behind-the-scenes machinations of the rich and powerful, which is one of the sources of the villains' super powers, and something no mere mortal can overcome. I'm put off by stories where such imbalance is vital.

I don't doubt that there are people with money and connections who can make "impossible" things happen and get away with it. I doubt that mere motrals can be such a threat as to attract the wrath of those supervillains.

I also doubt that mere mortals, or records of their existence, would survive the wrath of such supervillains. (It's not just the Chilean or Argentine militaries, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or the CIA that can make people disappear.)

Both of these books are packed with action, suspense, blood, and gore. Krueger even cheats by previewing a bloody scene from late in the book as a preface. Box cheats a bit by replaying a "find the bad guys in the wilderness" scenario three times.

In the end, Krueger's hero slinks off into the night in an attempt to protect his family. Box's hero faces years of post-traumatic stress therapy in order to learn to live with himself. (Although I'd guess that Box will resurrect his hero to fight another day with his sanity and identity intact evern without therapy.)

So, I didn't like the imbalance between the bad guys and the good guys. The violence and mayhem was more than I'd prefer in a mystery. The logic of the plots are stretched thinner than I'd like. But I read both of them. They were diversions from the preparations I was doing for an upcoming teaching gig. And they kept me out of the sun during our first really hot summer weekend.

And, one more thing. When I was about half way through Krueger's Mercy Falls, I mentioned to wonderful Nancy that I liked it more than I'd remembered liking the last Krueger novel I'd read. It went down hill in the second half. Then I finished the story, but there were still 50 pages left in the book. What was up with that? It turns out that the anti-climax was the launching of Krueger's next book -- a continuation of the supervillain-brave guy story. BOO! Sorry, I won't be looking for it.

Have you read Mercy Falls or Nowhere to Run? What did you think? Write and tell this little bit of the world what you think.

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William Kent Krueger's web site for Mercy Falls

C. J. Box's web site for Nowhere to Run

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BWCA adventure

While at Garrison Keillor's bookstore in St. Paul, I picked up what I thought was William Kent Krueger's first mystery novel, Boundary Waters. It turns out this book was his second. Not that it really matters.

This murderous mystery was much like the one I read earlier. That one may have been written later, but the similarities are great. I kept wondering if I read Boundary Waters before.

This was one of those books that kept me reading. I read most of it during one lazy Saturday at Sidetrack. Krueger tells adventure stories very well. In this book, I think there are five of them, one right after another. Just about the time I was thinking, "This is nearly the end of the story, what's going to happen in the last half of the book?" Krueger pulled an unexpected out of his hat and another dangerous adventure began. And most of them are not implausible.

(There are several implausible story elements in this book. They'd power the Infinite Improbability drive on the Heart of Gold quite a way toward the restaurant at the end of the universe. But the action was compelling enough to keep me reading right through the improbables.)

Imperfect hero Cork O'Connor, former sheriff and hamburger stand operator, is once again at the center of the stories. And he is the action hero who saves the day a couple times and almost saves the day at the very end. (The saving of the day at the end is one of those improbables that could send the Golden Spaceship to the restaurant at the end of the universe.)

The action was so continuous and the suspense so well maintained, that I read right through things like that. It was only on some reflection that I thought, "Huh?"

Native Americans, wolves, bears, really evil people, greed, political ambition, double crosses, and an organized crime boss are parts of the book. So are nearly a dozen murders (nearly all of which are committed in a small, far-northern Minnesota county seat). That's part of the trouble with Krueger's books: How do you get your small town "restauranteur" hero invloved in a series of once-in-a-century crimes? (Even in New York or Los Angeles or Las Vegas, the events in this book would be less than once a decade situations.) It's like some small town mayor from Alaska got elected governor and then was chosen to be a vice presidential candidate. Like that could ever happen. Suspend belief a lot!

I had a good time reading this book. Thankfully, I don't live in a community where such inhumanity is commonplace. But, I'm not sure I really liked the book. Does that make sense?

If you read Boundary Waters or another of Krueger's books, write and let this little bit of the world know what you think.

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See also:

• Krueger's web site
  
• Mary Welk's review at Reviewing the Evidence
  
• Other reviews at Good Reads

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Human story

David and I had some spare time because Little Tel Aviv was closed on Wednesday for Passover prepartion. Instead of lunching there, we ate at Subway.

Where do we often end up in our spare time? A bookstore. I really wasn't going to buy anything because I had three books on the pile at home -- one of them a library book.

But, the title, artwork, adn the plot teaser tempted me and I gave in.

It turns out that William Kent Krueger lives in Minnesota, and the story in Thunder Bay takes place in northern Minnesota and Ontario.

It's a story that spans more than 70 years and involves a lot of secrets that people believe they are keeping from one another. You know, like those secrets within families that really aren't secrets. In this story, as in so many of those family "secrets," many people know part of the secret, but no one knows all of the secret.

One bit of the story involves a 90-year-old Ojibwe shaman. Another bit centers on an eccentric and very successful mining company executive. Other bits involve domestic life of an all-America murder mystery/adventure feature family and the mourning of a retired and recently-widowed cop. There are Hallmark moments involving a young boy and dogs. There are frightening moments involving people killing each other. There are a couple of sad love stories. There is intrigue and mystery.

And Krueger is a good story teller. Characters are well-drawn. He doesn't venture too far into the implausible. I never lost interest or felt rushed by the story-telling. He's written seven other books like this one (according to his publisher), and he's won 8 minor-league prizes for them. I may go looking for another someday, but since I bought this one, I've read 3 books and there are still 3 more on the bedside table.

If you've read Thunder Bay or another of Krueger's books, let us know what you think.

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• William Kent Krueger's web site
  
• Jen's review at Jen's Book Thoughts
  
• John Holt's review at California Literary Review

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