The River We Remember: A Novel Kindle Edition

On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to take into account that and honor the sacrifice of such a lot of sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of rich landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the result of the autopsy, vicious rumors start to circulate that the killer will have to be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.

Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.

Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of midcentury American life from an creator of novels “as big-hearted as they come” (Parade), The River We Remember is an unflinching take a look at the wounds left by the wars we fight out of the country and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we searching for to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.