Powerful, haunting, disturbing, truthful. Most elements and characters in this story could be found almost anywhere in America but because the story was set in a small farming-centric community in the Midwest in the late 1950s, it was even more intense -- almost distilled into pure emotion. You knew from the constant and building tension that something significant was going to happen, just as the air crackles when a violent storm or tornado is likely to occur. Not a happy read but masterfully done nonetheless.

Great characters and a great story (though so sad at times). I feel like this is one my dad would enjoy.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In my opinion there is no one better than William Kent Krueger when it comes to writing the great American story. He is so freaking good at it! Some authors I skip entire sentences, but with WKK I cherish every single one of his words. In his latest The River We Remember we can a full cast of characters, a great mystery, town drama, and some crime thriller. The book starts off with a bang and one of the local townspeople is dead in the river. Throughout the rest of the novel we get to see the intricacies of the small town, the roles everyone plays, and hidden secrets from everyone’s past. The book is a slow burn, but will have you hanging on its every word. The book has many themes to explore and would make a great book club choice. I am from this small area he writes about and WKK knocked it out of the park with his authenticity of the area. Bravo! 4.5 stars.

Ohhhh, this book... I am a HUGE fan of William Kent Krueger's books, particularly Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land. Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled to get an advanced copy of his latest, The River We Remember.

This book reveals the innermost thoughts of multiple characters of all ages and walks of life. It is somewhat of a mystery in that a dead body of a local citizen is found at the beginning, and all initial implications indicated that it was a murder. The deceased, Jimmy Quinn, was not well-liked, and Brody Dern, the well-meaning sheriff, does everything he can to prevent it from becoming a murder investigation. There are some twists and some elements of foreshadowing that make this 432-page book hard to put down.

Overall, Krueger always weaves description and plot together well, and despite it being a longer book, I didn't want it to end. I loved the epilogue and thought it tied together everything in a way that didn't leave me wondering. I hope to continue reading books by this author for a long time to come!

Absolutely fantastic book. I was hooked from page 1. This was my first but will not be my last. Fantastic storytelling and plot. Highly recommended.

Set in 1958 in the small Minnesota town of Jewel, Krueger once again employs his skills in portraying Native culture and family relationships to explore what happened after the discovery of the body of the town’s powerful, wealthy and not-much-liked landowner, Jimmy Quinn, found floating in the Alabaster River.

Sheriff Brody Dern battles his own demons as he investigates the crime and tries to stop townspeople from lynching the main suspect, Noah Bluestone. Noah was a Native WWII veteran who returned to Jewel after the war with a Japanese wife, Kyoko. Both of them worked for Quinn, but Noah was recently fired. Noah and his wife formed the perfect intersection of prejudices for the townspeople. Even though nobody liked Jimmy Quinn, they held even more fear and hatred of Native Americans (fed by popular culture, Krueger emphasizes), and for the Japanese, the recent enemy of the US in the war. Brody Dern has his hands full.

Charlotte “Charlie” Bauer is an attorney in town. She is nearing 60 and now retired, but still defends the defenseless from time to time. Noah won’t defend himself, so she insists on doing what she can for him.

An Epilogue, narrated by Charlie, is set around 30 years later. It is Charlie who manages to uncover the secrets of the town and thereby gets answers to what really happened. She observes:

“Our lives and the lives of those we love merge to create a river whose current carries us forward from our beginning to our end. Because we are only one part of the whole, the river each of us remembers is different, and there are many versions of the stories we tell about the past. In all of them there is truth, and in all of them a good deal of innocent misremembering.”

Evaluation: Krueger has yet to disappoint as an author and as a sensitive observer of the human condition. This moving book will affect even the most stoic of readers, and would make an excellent choice for book clubs.

Another outstanding stand alone novel from William Kent Krueger. Thought this one was going to be predictable at the end, but certainly fooled me. Characters are many, but they're all extremely developed and interesting bunch.
Thanks to NetGalley for advance copy.

Fantastic! I thought I solved the mystery but I was wrong. Krueger has a talent for writing according to how a reader will think - and I love every minute of it. The characters aren’t exactly lovable but they are well developed and perfectly characterized. Also enjoyed the teenagers!

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC of The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger. If you have read his books before, you will like this one. I love his books because there is a mystery, but it is also about the people and their lives.

This is a slow burn type of book, but it is well worth taking your time with it.
Brody Dern is the sheriff in small town Jewel, Minnesota in 1958. Jimmy Quinn is found dead in the river and the community starts speculating who killed him. As Brody starts to uncover the murderer, secrets of people close to Jimmy start to come to light.

The River We Remember has a lot going for it: gorgeous prose, complex characters, and a setting that is so unique and memorable that I won't forget it anytime soon. I came for the mystery, but I stayed for the characters. William Kent Krueger has a gift for writing characters that have such depth. There are several characters who are villainous (evil, even) but the majority of the characters do some good things and some bad things. As the story unfolds, you get a deeper understanding of why the characters are the way they are and it comes across as being very realistic.

My main criticism is that as the tension builds at the end of the book, a lot of bad things happen all at once. I was okay with the confrontation at the farm and the fire as well as the crisis with the boys, Creasy, and Noah. The one that just broke me apart was the attack on Kyoko. And not just attacked, but raped...that was almost enough to knock the book down a star for me. That could be re-written in the final version of the book, if you're asking for feedback! Have Creasy stop by to see Kyoko and threaten her, but have her outsmart him in some way by locking him out. The rape just felt too cruel on top of everything else that had been revealed.

What redeemed the lost star for me was that we got a lovely epilogue. Really well-done, and it brought the book right back up to 4.5 stars (I'll round up to 5 here on NetGalley). When a reader is that invested in the characters, some closure and distance from the main events is really appreciated.

Overall, this is a gorgeous book. I would liken it to To Kill A Mockingbird, and that is ridiculously high praise.

A big thank you to the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

William Kent Krueger is an incredible writer between his characters, descriptions of the land, dialogues and interactions between his characters, that all invite you to linger over his words, savoring them. The landscape and river are just as much characters in this powerful novel as are the people. Set in the fifties, the war scars still loom large in his male characters and in all his men and women, he shows the good and bad which create their whole. He writes about the stereotypical prejudices in a small town that its inhabitants don’t want to change. All in all this is a very powerful, and phenomenal novel.
Rich, powerful, as well as a man hated, Jimmy Quinn is found dead in the river and although first signs point to suicide, it soon becomes apparent it’s murder. Everyone wants to blame Native American Noah Blackstone who returned from the war with a Japanese bride. This makes the job incredibly hard for Sheriff Brody Dern and his deputies who fight against the pat answers, although looking for justice in a man everyone hated difficult at best.
An incredible book that will resonate with you long after you’ve finished.

Another literary knockout from the brilliant William Kent Krueger! His stories are so beautifully written with detail in character and plot development that the reader is transported as though they see the story through his eyes.

It’s 1958, in the small town of Jewell, Minnesota when the body of one of the most disliked residents, Jimmy Quinn, is found in the Alabaster River. Like most men in Jewell who returned home from war bearing physical and/or emotional scars, Sheriff Brody Dern is tasked with the investigation of the murder. As is common in small towns where everyone knows everyone, rumors quickly begin to circulate that points to Native American and WW2 veteran, Noah Bluestone, as the killer. Noah and his Japanese wife, Kyoto, do not especially feel at home in Jewell even though the Bluestones have lived there for generations and they soon become central in the investigation.

If you‘ve read WKK before, particularly his standalone books This Tender Land and Ordinary Grace, you already know the brilliance of his storytelling. If you haven’t yet read him, what are you waiting for?!?!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Starred Review

William Kent Krueger arguably is one of Minnesota’s finest crime novelists to come along. His long running Cork O’Conner series is as fine of writing you will read. Kent Krueger has now been occasionally gifting us with some side work, Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land, and don’t forget the fine prequel Lighting Strike which blew me away. Devoured it.

Never getting comfortable seems to be Kent Kruegers hard scrabble Minnesota roots. Much like our way of life and embracing our brutal winters, Krueger tackles southern Minnesota in the late 50’s. See there is nothing sexy in this area of the state. It is featureless farm land. Wavy landscape, beautiful on a Spring morning, but nothing to set a novel in. Except Krueger who is always stretching his prose says wait a minute, and creates a crime noir, police procedural, unlike his previous writing that blooms beauty in an otherwise boring featureless landscape. The smell, the vibe, the people are drawn out.and given a certain reality that’s hard to write. Somehow Krueger does this effortlessly. Made me almost feel I was reading a Jame Lee Burke novel. Sheriff Dern almost had me thinking he was Robicheaux.

In this rare novel Krueger works his characters by exposing their insides and examines them in a slow burn of a novel. However do not take this the wrong way. Clearly he does this intentionally to build the tension, but also to the readers delight places you inside the novel to see how your own humanness is the same as the characters spread throughout.

Brody Dern is the Sheriff old Black Earth County in Southern Minnesota. Late 1950’s post World War 2 and Korea is still fresh on everyone’s minds and the scars theses men and women carried. Krueger really does exposes the era so well you feel placed into his writing as not only and outsider looking in, but in the farmland your self. Incredible talent for a novelist. A town bully who takes what he wants and pushes people around, also quite the drinker, is found dead in a river that flows gently through the land. Gruesome and violent Dern has to unpack how he got there. Late 1950’s we still held many prejudices for minorities and again with grace and skill Dern has to see through these themes find out how he died. Was it an accident or a murder?

Krueger, although it seems impossible to up his writing, sure has accomplished it with this brilliantly crafted crime novel. I believe it’s the most police procedural, crime noir he has written. Two final thoughts: certainly Dern needs more attention, and when does the streamers start producing Kruegers work to the television.

Early call. Novel of 2023.

Another excellent story from William Kent Krueger. The book is a real page-turner.

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger delivers an engrossingly good read.
A gripping literacy mystery that was an excellent and exciting read. This is not a book one will put down and come back to later. The theme is timely and important. The characters are excellent. And his writing skills and ability to craft good stories is just phenomenal.
The author does an excellent job describing Jewel, Minnesota.
He does a great job fleshing out all characters. The characters ring true and become real people.
An unputdownable story.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Atria Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I am a loyal fan of this author’s Cork O’Connor mysteries and have never read a standalone novel by him. This has all changed when I received an ARC of this book and decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did.

This story may begin with the discovery of a dead body, a man who is not well liked in this small town in Black Earth County, Minnesota. It is so much more then the hunt for a killer. This book is inundated with undercurrents of racism, hate, sexual exploitation and domestic violence. All the characters are scarred in some way, mentally, physically and emotionally. As they battle their own demons they are entangled in the hunt for a killer. You can feel the tension spiral out of control as the narrative evolves, knowing that a climatic ending is coming, and will affect everyone in town.

This book is due to be published in September, 2023. Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first William Kent Krueger book, but it will not be my last! I loved this book. A fascinating literary mystery, a character study and a slice of life look at rural 1950’s America, this book executed many concepts perfectly. I was drawn into the mystery, and kept guessing until the very end. I loved following our characters, and learning more about them and their struggles, particularly our main character. The ending of this book also made me tear up, because it’s so heartbreaking, as you’ve come to love the characters. I highly recommend this book!

Wow. I just stayed up til 3AM finishing this one. It was a page turner. I literally tried to go to sleep about 59% of the way through and I was like, no, gotta finish this one.

The story centers on a murder in a small town, shortly after World War II. Many of the townspeople have been affected by the way, one way or another. The sheriff, Brody, is trying to piece together what happened to Jimmy Quinn.

I do not want to spoil anything from this story, but know that these characters are fleshed out, feel real, and the story grips you. I will not forget this one anytime soon. Please pick it up when it comes out.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 Stars

This story begins in Jewel, Minnesota on May 30th, 1958 - Memorial Day. The people who live there, as in most small towns, gather in remembrance of those who fought in past wars, and to honour their memory, their service, and the sacrifices they made.

Meanwhile, a body is floating in the Alabaster River, which has yet to come to anyone’s attention. For a moment, the town is gathered in celebration, honouring the dead, but soon they will all know. The question remains, though, who pulled the trigger that left one of their most prominent citizens, Jimmy Quinn - a war hero, floating in the river.

An investigation follows, as well as an autopsy, but there are people in this town who have already decided who is responsible. Noah Bluestone, a WWII veteran, who is also a Native American, who recently returned to Jewel, with a new wife, a Japanese woman. While the investigation of the apparent murder of Jimmy Quinn is placed in the lap of Sheriff Brody Dern - also a war hero - most of the town has already made the decision of who killed Jimmy Quinn.

The stories circulate well before the autopsy results have been determined, but the truth is apparently irrelevant to a notable percentage of the town, and those who aren’t interested in the truth decide that it is undoubtedly Noah Bluestone. As the rumours spread, more violence follows. A significant number of the people in the town begin to believe these rumours, ones that are based only on a hatred of anyone who looks different from them. As the town gets caught up in this divisive rhetoric, some have their own stories they’d sooner forget, and hope their secrets won’t be revealed.

This is a story of family and the place we call home as well as the good and bad of both. The ways that a small town remembers everything and never lets you forget the things that you wish you could, but can also lift you up and heal you. The wounds created by family, but also the love and the bonds that are created. It is also a story of bigotry, discrimination, sexism, and intolerance. A story of life in a small town.



Pub Date: 05 Sept 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Atria Books

No one writes a book like William Kent Krueger. Touching on so many themes all woven into a tory that keeps the pagers turning. This is the cream of the crop of all of his books. I have loved everyone but this one is superb. It is a stand alone that stands quite well on its own to feet. Pick it up and you won't put it down until you have reached the end and then you will be sorry because you have reached the end! A marvelous booik

This book, written by a popular author, is intriguing. Mysteries and secrets with red herrings thrown in keep the story moving. The characters are realistic and somewhat enchanting. The part of this book that is my favorite…the images…the word pictures. This author is talented and gifted at writing a story that is like a painting. I liked this book so much. The time period is one of my favorites…. This is a book that cannot be put down. I read it beginning to end in a short time. It is a story to be cherished with characters who we might know. This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher and author. I cannot say enough good things about this book. The comparison of the river to life…love that.