Lake Country

May 7, 2012
Fans of such regional mystery specialists as Kent Krueger and Steve Hamilton will welcome this twisted tale of crime and punishment gone awry set in Minnesota lake country from Barry Award–winner Doolittle (Safer). Buddies Darryl Potter and Mike Barlowe lead lives of quiet desperation, drinking too much and reminiscing about the not-so-good-ol’-days in Afghanistan, where as soldiers they watched friends and foes die. When Darryl commits an improbable crime to mark the anniversary of a senseless tragedy, Mike sets out to right the wrong and save both the victim and his buddy, but things don’t turn out as planned. Mike soon has dogged reporter Maya Lamb, self-promotion king Buck Morningside, bookie Toby Lunden, fugitive hunter/thug Bryce, and a phalanx of law enforcement agencies on his trail. Much collateral damage follows with lives lost and others dramatically altered. The skillfully evoked landscape and compellingly flawed characters help make this a winner. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management.

July 1, 2012
On the fifth anniversary of 20-year-old Becky Morse's death, caused by a head-on collision with drowsy driver Wade Benson, dishonorably discharged Iraq vet Darryl Potter sets out to even the score. On the same day Becky died in Minneapolis, her brother, Lance Corporal Evan Morse, a member of the same marine battalion as Potter and his friend, Mike Barlowe, was killed by an IED in Iraq, prompting their father to commit suicide. After a night of hard drinking, Potter seeks a measure of justice by kidnapping Benson's college-student daughter, Juliet. TV reporter Maya Lamb, a hotshot who covered the original Morse story but whose career seems to be stagnating, doggedly pursues the kidnapping story. Meanwhile, Barlowe, whose life was saved in Iraq by Potter, suspects what his troubled friend has done and desperately seeks a good outcome for everyone also on Potter's trailexcept a bookie out for his pound of Potter's flesh. A fast and riveting read by the author of Safer (2009), this is top-notch hard-boiled fare with a welcome human touch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)