Book Review: The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

Published in 2023. Mystery. It’s 1958 in the small town of Jewel, Minnesota. The body of a prominent farmer, James Quinn, has been found floating in the Alabaster River by a local resident. He notifies the local sheriff, Brody Dern, who begins an investigation. The autopsy reveals a massive shotgun blast in the middle of the body, and at first, most of the county is suspected because no one liked Quinn. But the suspect list is narrowed down to one when a bloodied tarp is found on the farm of Noah Bluestone, who is Sioux. The sheriff doesn’t believe it was him, but many in the town do because of his race. Noah puts up no resistance and offers no defense even when an attorney is appointed to his case. As he languishes in jail, the sheriff and the attorney continue their investigations into the murder.

I almost put this book down because it seemed slow. Although the pace didn’t pick up, the characters became more intriguing, and the writing was excellent, so I finished the book. I haven’t read anything else by this author, but he has written 22 other books.