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Lost Colony: The Hennepin Island Murders

by Steve Berg (Goodreads Author)

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Reader said: " In exchange for reviewing Lost Colony, I received a complimentary copy of the book. I have already recommended it to several book-buying friends.

Author Steve Berg has the newspaper business embedded in his Central Nervous System and has written an ex In exchange for reviewing Lost Colony, I received a complimentary copy of the book. I have already recommended it to several book-buying friends.

Author Steve Berg has the newspaper business embedded in his Central Nervous System and has written an exceptional first novel that covers all the important questions surrounding a grisly double murder through the perceptive and sometimes jaundiced eye of one who has thirty plus years of experience chasing stories.

Protagonist Span Lokken is a Minneapolis reporter who still gets a rush when the Star Journal headlines his story. His career peaked years ago. Shoved into an eleventh floor cubicle, he is still tolerated by—and sometimes useful to—the New Age managers who have offices with walls and doors that open and shut. Span has the good fortune of collaborating with the innately and unassumingly gorgeous Pastor Maggie after she discovers two bodies in the sanctuary of St. Ansgar’s Lutheran Church. Maggie’s generosity of spirit in all that she does contrasts with that of parishioner Jonas Kron, who comes from a line of successful industrialists, has financed the church for decades, and is as demented as he is rich. Kron is on the irredeemable side of the “badness” spectrum. Most of the “bad” in the other guys so labeled can be attributed to poor upbringing or unfortunate genealogy and is occasionally tempered by good intentions. Good guys, bad guys, and those in-between, Steve has created characters that leave the reader wondering about their true motives and the proclivities that lie beneath the surface of their skin.

The prominence of the victims and the salaciousness of the murders cause a sensation and the police run down clues from the upper crusts of the city to its deep and decrepit corners. The video discovery of bumbling hit men who can’t resist an extended visit at an airport bar is the first hint of an international connection. Surprising intersections of the subplots shift action to the back alleys of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia and nefariously return to Minneapolis.

Lost Colony is more than a reporter’s account of Who-done-it, What, and Where. Steve has embedded into the plot the stuff that makes stories human: the preciousness of the parent/child relationship, religious doubt and faith, institutional failures, the undying possibility of love. Add the plausible connection to post Cold War tension and assassination and you have a fine read. ...more "

Aug 28, 2023 05:02PM · see review

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