Increasingly you can find top-notch, high drama mysteries using our Lake Superior and north woods settings. In this issue, we query four successful mystery writers about why they choose this locale for their work. (Having gotten to meet all of them, I can say they are much sweeter than their sometimes dark novels.) We also give a list of the many murder, mayham or haunted books we’ve received in the last year as a sampler for your consideration.
Brian Freeman is fantastically prolific … and good. He made his first Big Lake splash in 2006 with Immoral, the introduction of his character Jonathan Stride, a Duluth police detective often haunted by his past. He’s done a lucky 13 Stride books since then, counting The Zero Night, which debuts Nov. 1. Brian’s full complement of books numbers closer to 30, including recent Jason Bourne novels (he was annointed to take over that series and had his first Bourne book published in 2020). A New York Times best seller list author, his books are sold in 46 countries and in 23 languages. The Zero Night will be Brian’s fourth book released this year.
How did you come to choose a Big Lake or northwoods setting for your series?
I first visited Duluth back in 1982 when I was still in college. Even then, I remember thinking it would be a great place for thrillers. I love to use the outdoors as a backdrop for my stories. Plus, Duluth is big enough that you can imagine dark things happening there, but small enough that you keep bumping into your past around every corner. That’s exactly the kind of world Stride lives in.
What do you like most about your lead character and does the setting influence him?
Stride is very much a northern Minnesota kind of hero. He’s fiercely determined, just like his name suggests. He tucks his chin against the bitter wind, puts one foot in front of the other and keeps moving forward.
Do you have a favorite fan observation about your setting?
I remember a review that said, “Nobody writes weather like Brian Freeman.” For a Minnesotan, that’s high praise! And Stride sure does face a lot of extreme weather in my series. Then again, it’s Duluth — so of course, he does.
William Kent Krueger found his fictional home in northern Minnesota near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. His main character, Cork O’Connor,
has appeared in 19 books, including the newest, Fox Creek, just released this fall. Cork, when we first meet him, is sheriff of the fictional Tamarack County and is of Irish-Ojibwe heritage. Kent has also done three stand-alone novels and has been on the New York Times best seller list nine times (so far) and earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
How did you come to choose a Big Lake or northwoods setting for your series?
When I first moved to Minnesota over 40 years ago, I discovered the great North Woods. It was love at first sight. I knew right away that when I got serious about writing a novel, the work would be set in the Arrowhead.
What do you like most about your lead character?
Cork is a flawed human being, as are we all. But he has a solid moral compass and although he stumbles occasionally, he’s always trying to do the right thing. He’s a hard character not to root for.
Does your book setting influence how the characters evolved?
When I used to teach creative writing, I always taught setting before I taught anything else, because so much of a story rises out of setting. Character certainly is shaped by setting. Motivation is shaped by setting. Atmosphere is all about setting. I write profoundly out of a sense of place, and I work at making clear the effect that the place has on almost every aspect of the story.
Do you have a favorite fan observation about your setting?
I received an email a while back that pleased me enormously. It was from the tribal librarian for the L’Anse reservation on the U.P. of Michigan. She told me that she recommends my work to folks on the reservation who come to the library, because, she said, “For a white guy, you do a pretty good job.”
Michael Carrier puts his main character, Jack Handler, a retired Chicago homicide detective, into some of the roughest, toughest situations centering in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The 15th of his hard-edged thrillers, To China with Love: The Case of the Sympathetic Martyr, came out in February. Like Brian Freeman, who blew up the Duluth mall in one book, Michael is not opposed to planting explosives in the U.P. His book Sault: What Could be Worse than Great Lakes Erosion? targets the Soo Locks. Michael’s website for Greenwich Village Ink, features free preview sections for most of his books.
How did you come to choose a Big Lake or northwoods setting for your series?
I set my series in the U.P. for three reasons. First of all, my parents spent the first few years of their marriage living there. My dad was a lumberjack, and the resident “moonshiner” at whatever camp he was working in (most were near Newberry, I believe). Second reason for choosing the U.P. was that I had bought a house on Lake Superior near Whitefish Point. The third reason for the U.P. was in my desire to create a separation from New York City.
What do you like most about your lead character?
My main character, Jack Handler, and I both worked for decades as private security contractors. I like his method of problem solving better than the more conventional one I developed.
Does book setting influence how the character evolved?
Had I set my stories in a large city, such as New York City, Jack Handler would have employed a system of operation much like the one he did in the U.P., but it likely would not have been as effective, or as plausible.
Do you have a favorite fan observation about your setting?
My readers identify with Sugar Island in the U.P. I believe I am told a dozen times a week that “I read that book in a day. I need more.” That observation is heavily influenced by Jack Handler’s surroundings. To date, I have completed 15 books highlighting the exploits of Jack Handler. The one I recommend a reader to start with is Murder on Sugar Island.
Mike Savage runs a local Twin Ports publishing house called Savage Press and spends a lot of time promoting the work of others. In addition, though, he has been writing his own brand of humor/noir mysteries set in Wisconsin north woods and featuring now-retired police detective Dave Davecki. Mike lives and writes with tongue firmly in cheek, which often makes his books, well, a bit cheeky … and enjoyable. (Mike’s reference below to “Mad Town,” for the uninitiated refers to Madison.) Typical of Mike, when I asked for a photo of him, he sent this one …
How did you come to choose a Big Lake or northwoods setting for your series?
I grew up in “Cornutopia” on Lake Superior’s South Shore, sometimes presumptuously referenced by Mad Town state tourism publicists as, “Wisconsin’s North Coast.” So, the Big Lake presumed to dominate my youthful psyche … resulting in Something in the Water, Alphonse “Dave” Davecki’s first burst of exuberance. Six more books followed, the recent ones being played out on the Brule River, where my mother was born and raised and where I now live and breathe and dawdle away my remaining days in a malformed type of retirement.
What do you like most about your lead character?
Davecki is a goofball who, with pal Patrick Stanski, lets the crimes solve themselves, thanks in many instances to the help of divine intervention or outrageous circumstance … or well-intentioned hell from numerous animal “friends.”
Does your book setting influence how the character evolved?
Mother Nature is always playing tricks on Davecki to get him to pay attention to obvious clues that he is missing due to his sad attempts at having a life.
Do you have a favorite fan observation about your setting?
Ron from Chicago said he loves reading the Davecki books because they prompt memories of his youth in Superior. Jeff from Iron River said that Davecki’s peregrinations around and through the north woods introduce him to off-the-beaten locations he didn’t know existed, and he has fun trying to find them using clues from the books. In one book, Jeff followed Davecki’s meandering to end up at the Oulu dump. In another book, Davecki led the reader to an actual placer gold mine a little northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. Fun stuff.
Enjoy this sampler of books made for the haunts of October and November and look for full reviews this fall online at LakeSuperior.com. – KLM
Refuge from the Sea
by Vincent Wyckoff
North Star Press of St. Cloud
ISBN 978-1682011416
$17.00 softcover
Just released in September, Vincent brings us the third in his series centered on the fictional Minnesota town of Black Otter Bay. He tells me its “a mystery without a murder” and the 1909 construction of Split Rock Lighthouse plays a prominent role.
Dead of November
A Novel of Lake Superior
by Craig A. Brockman
Self-published
ISBN 978-0578623535
$13.99 softcover
When ghosts of those lost on Lake Superior start showing up along the Upper Peninsula shores, living residents must discover the what and why of their resurfacing. Psychologist Adam Knowles, who fled Sault Ste. Marie after the drowning death of his wife, finds himself back in the U.P. and in the midst of the mystery. Craig describes his writing as “horror, thriller, Christian,” all elements are woven into this great fall read.
Death in the Blood Moon
by Jenifer LeClair
Fog Harbor Press
ISBN 978-0-578-42432-3
$16.99 softcover
Book 6 of Jenifer’s Windjammer series, bring Minneapolis homicide detective Brie Beaumont to Lake Superior in her quest to solve the murder of her partner and a new mystery that comes from a series of threatening letters. Do read the earlier books first to follow Brie’s evovling story.
Superior Justice
Murder on Lake Superior
by Mike Montie
Self-published
ISBN 979-8758487419
$14.00 softcover
Mike knows the territory in this second in a series about Madison police detective Molders. He was a Madison detective and raised in northern Wisconsin. Mike’s fictional detective heads to the Big Lake, bent on retirement, a summer job on Isle Royale and hanging out on his new 31-foot sailboat. But bodies keep turning up in the Lake, and Molders pairs with a college-age park ranger to solve the case.
Wolf Kill
by Cary J. Griffith
Adventure Publications
ISBN 978-1-64755-057-8
$16.95 softcover
Cary introduced mystery-solving wildlife biologist Sam Rivers in this book set in northern Minnesota. A second in the series, Cougar Claw, came out this year set in the Twin Cities. In both books, Sam uses his knowledge to solve mysteries that seem like predator attacks. But Sam knows better.
