The Book Stall in Winnetka hosted acclaimed author, William Kent Krueger on Saturday, Sept. 23 for a discussion of his new murder mystery novel, “The River We Remember.”
In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this stand-alone novel from the New York Times bestselling author.
“We have been huge fans of Krueger’s novels for many years and have hosted him here for readings and signings before,” Book Stall event coordinator Robert McDonald said. “We loved reading, ‘Ordinary Grace’ and ‘This Tender Land’, and now we are so excited to read ‘The River We Remember’.”
The prologue of “The River We Remember” opens to the gruesome discovery, a dead body found where “the Alabaster River cuts diagonally across Black Earth County, Minnesota, a crooked course like a long crack in a china plate.”
Murder however, according to Krueger, is not really what the story is about.
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“‘The River We Remember’ is an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home,” he said. “A moving exploration of the ways which we seek to heal and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.”
Krueger, who makes his home in St. Paul Minnesota, rose to popularity with his Cork O’Connor mystery series following the former sheriff of Tamarack County and a man of mixed heritage being part Irish and part Native American.
Krueger says he likes to set his stories in small towns.
“I’ve always had a warm spot in my heart for the culture of a small town,” Krueger said.
Krueger combines the Mayberryesque nostalgia that comes from living in a small community with the importance of place in his stories that often connect small town life to the natural world.
Jonathan Grote of Libertyville is a historian who studies the Apostle Islands and the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, the setting for many of Krueger’s stories.
“My wife and I just got back from a trip to Sand Island and my knowledge of the geographic area feeds my enjoyment of Krueger’s novels, ‘The River We Remember’ and others,” Grote said
Cynthia Onra of Winnetka also attended Saturday.
“I was born on the French Canadian border of Minnesota and these books give me a way to journey through the wilderness without actually leaving home,” Onra said.
Krueger’s work has received a number of awards including the Minnesota Book Award, the Loft-Mcknight Fiction Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, the Dilys Award, the Friends of American Writers Prize and the 2014 Edgar Award given by the Mystery Writers of America in recognition for the best novel published that year.
His last 11 novels were all New York Times bestsellers.
Krueger says, in order to write a story, he first has to hear the voice of the story speak to him.
“‘The River We Remember’ is a story that I believe in and love deeply,” he said. “I give it to readers with a full heart.”
Gina Grillo is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.