The Ravens

Starred review from April 20, 2015
Blood, real and metaphorical, dominates Sundstøl's first in his Minnesota trilogy, Land of Dreams, in which forest ranger Lance Hansen suspects his brother, Andy, of bludgeoning a Norwegian tourist to death. Ice envelops human hearts in the second book, Only the Dead, in which the brothers each approach fratricide. And black shadows out of ancient Viking lore hover over this stunning concluding volume. Ravens that mythically represented Thought and Memory survive the harshest winters, feasting on carcasses that remind Lance of his own futile and tormented life as he struggles to uncover the secrets of his Scandinavian family. Lance's troubled niece, Chrissy, who's entangled in Duluth's goth drug scene, is a target of Andy's anger; Lance tries to save her but nonetheless uses her to solve the crime. In a dream vision out of Lance's hidden Ojibway heritage, he journeys through a symbolic death before he can balance poetry, words conveying love, and berserker rage to grasp the solution to this terrible, beautiful dilemma. Sundstøl echoes an Old Norse saga that warns, "Thought and Memory fly over the world each day. I fear for Thought, lest he come not back, but I fear yet more for Memory."

Starred review from March 15, 2015
A man's life crumbles as he desperately seeks a solution to his problems.U.S. Forest Service ranger Lance Hansen's life has been hell since he discovered the badly beaten corpse of a Norwegian tourist (The Land of Dreams, 2013). Although Ojibwe Lenny Diver was arrested for the crime, Lance is almost sure his own brother, Andy, is the real killer. After a near-fatal incident on a deer hunt (Only the Dead, 2014), when Lance's gun accidentally fired but Andy thought Lance tried to kill him, Lance runs away. He arranges with a friend in Norway, where he's supposed to be vacationing and looking up relatives, to send postcards home while he spends two months in a Canadian motel paralyzed by his dilemma. Back home, wracked with guilt over the possible conviction of an innocent man, he begins again to investigate the case. Blood that could only have come from a Native American was found at the scene. But since Lance has discovered an Ojibwe family ancestor, Andy could still be the killer. Lance starts spending time with Andy's daughter, Chrissy, a bright young girl who's taken to dressing like a goth. Her relationship with her parents has deteriorated so much that Andy is violent with her, and Lance suspects she's using drugs. Although Lance has been unable to dream for years, he's had visions of an Ojibwe trapper another of his ancestors may have murdered. Pushed to the limit, he finally has a dream that may reveal the truth.The last in Sundstol's Minnesota Trilogy is the most like a traditional mystery while continuing the mystical images and stunning descriptions that make for a superb reading experience.