The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

 

When the body of Jimmy Quinn is discovered in the river, shotgunned to death, the entire town set on the banks of the Alabaster River.  Quinn was a wealthy landowner and had a reputation for being mean and quick to have a temper when things didn't go his way.  Who killed Quinn?  

Was it one of the landowners whose property Quinn had acquired often through machinations or when the crops failed?  Was it someone Quinn had bested in an argument or at cards?  Or was it someone whose wife he had taken?  Quinn's wife was sick with MS.

The town decided that it had to be Noah Bluestone, a Native American who had grown up there and returned after a career in the military.  He is farming land his ancestors had owned but most of their property had ended up with Quinn.  Noah had married a Japanese woman when he was stationed there right after World War II, and there was still sentiment against her and against Noah as he was one of the few Native Americans in the area anymore.  Both Noah and his wife had worked for Quinn and he had fired Noah the day he was killed.  Did that play a part?  

Two teenage boys get caught up in the excitement.  One is the stepson of the other man Quinn had working for him and he had set Noah up to get fired.  The other boy was the son of the woman who ran the town's diner with her mother-in-law and who had her own secrets.  There was the sheriff, Brody Dern, who also carries secrets and his deputies, especially the former sheriff who comes back to help out in such an unusual time.  They are fighting to learn the truth while making sure that no one hurts Bluestone or his wife while the investigation is going on.

William Kent Krueger is an American author who lives in Minnesota and writes about the country he loves.  Many readers know him best for his mystery series about a former sheriff, Cork O'Connor.  But I prefer his books that explore the Minnesota he knows and the people that inhabit it along with the dilemmas they face.  This book is recommended for both literary fiction and mystery readers.