Just like a river, this story has its bends and flows in several directions. In my opinion, this is one of William Kent Krueger's best books. Based in small town, Jewel, Minnesota in 1958 prejudice and memories of WWII run deep with the townspeople. When prominent citizen, Jimmy Quinn turns up dead, it stirs up memories and suspicions run in many directions. A beautifully woven script describing the landscape, the river and the way of life with the Native Indians and whites. The characters are flawed yet are strong and survive in this small town. Love, loyalty and overcoming your demons prevail. I found it very insightful how he describes the trials and memories of the WWII vets, Brody Dern, sheriff and Noah Bluestone, Native Indian. All questions are answered in the end. I highly recommend this book.

Melancholic and evocative, the story meanders illuminating the headaches of the different characters. Set in rural Minnesota post-WWII, the death of Jimmy Quinn highlights the mores and racism of the time. Noah Bluestone, an Indian and war hero, has returned with a Japanese wife. And his guilt is predetermined by many of the townsfolks who want action from Brody, another damaged soul from the war. Methodically paced and beautifully written, it's another jewel in Krueger's canon.

It is 1958 in rural Minnesota when a notorious citizen of the county is gunned down. Brody Dern knows no one will be sad Jimmy Quinn is dead, but despite his best efforts, it is declared murder. The immediate suspect is Noah Bluestone, a Dakota Sioux veteran of WWII. He is soon arrested but tensions remain. As events unfold, there is more to the story but also lots of racial tension.

This one started a little slow but then Krueger’s writing just captivates you. He is so good at creating compelling narratives and stories that are just so beautiful. There were some plot points early on I was unsure about, but they all tie together nicely at the end. If you’ve enjoyed Krueger’s previous books, you are sure to enjoy this! If you’ve never read his books, then pick one up and enjoy!

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loveddd the history in this book. The way it’s woven throughout the whole book and we get to learn how it affects each character is really well done. The mystery was so interesting as well. I also really enjoyed the small town feel of this book - it reminded me of home.

What I didn’t love are the amount of characters introduced to us while reading. I was really lost doing the audio of this one. After I grabbed the print everything became a little more clear, but I was still questioning who was who. I thought the book was a bit too long and descriptive as well. It really distracted me from the story.

Overall, there were parts of this book that simply made me not want to put the book down and other parts that made me want to DNF. Ultimately I’m wondering if this is just not the author for me.

Read if you enjoy:
✍️ This author’s previous books
♥️ Small town vibes
✨ History woven through a mystery

Another home run for me by William Kent Krueger! When I first read Ordinary Grace years ago it really resonated with me, it has stayed in my list of all time favs. Then when Tender Land came out, well it’s a crowd pleaser- does anyone not love that story?
The River We Remember has some similarities to both of those books-
* Midwest small town setting
* The characters and the story are connected to a river.
* A murder to solve
* A tight knit community with lots of secrets

One thing that makes this book unique from his others is an emphasis on characters who have returned from war and carry the burdens and traumas associated with that.

As always Kruger is a masterful storyteller and grabs your attention from the get go. His characters are both admirable and flawed which makes them feel all the more real.
In Ordinary Grace and Tender Land the main characters were younger, more of a coming of age and they just had my whole heart! In this book I was maybe not quite as attached to the characters as in his others but that’s really my only critique.
I flew through this in a matter of days and throughly enjoyed it!

I loved “This Tender Land” so I was excited to hear William Kent Krueger had a new book coming out. He did not disappoint – I definitely enjoyed this one just as much. He has a great talent for telling a story with plenty of character development and descriptive scenes while weaving in a little history at the same time. There are many storylines that piqued my interest and characters that held a place in my heart so I never found my mind wandering while reading. That says a lot for me – highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the complimentary copy of this book. As always, the opinions expressed within this review are completely my own.

Many thanks to Atria, Bookclub Favorites, and NetGalley for my gifted copy.

The River We Remember was so beautifully written, and I was just sucked in. You will love almost all the people of Jewell, Minnesota and Krueger makes you feel like you are right there with them.

Set in the 1950s, a body is found floating in the Alabaster River. The people living in the small town of Jewell, Minnesota, are all shocked, and they think only one person could have done this, Noah Bluestone. Brody Dern, the cop of Jewell, is not so sure, as he investigates secrets and lies are exposed, and the truth eventually comes to light.

This was such a great character driven book. I would say this actually reminded me of reading To Kill A Mockingbird. I highly recommend adding this one to your list. This wonderful book just came out on Tuesday.

Minnesota, 1958. A time when people are still carrying hurts from World War II and also a time when people still harbor deeply rooted prejudices against Native Americans. It’s Memorial Day in this small Minnesota town and whatever flaws the citizens have, they are deeply patriotic.

Amidst all the Memorial Day festivities, a man finds the town Sheriff, Brody Dern and informs him that a dead man has been found in the river. A small-town investigation gets underway as they try and find out what happened. Suicide, an accident or murder?

As the investigation unfolds, readers become privy to the behind the scenes drama of the townspeople and what motivations each may have had in the events that unfolded. The characters are so well thought out and real that I felt like I knew them. The small town atmosphere was spot-on. This is a story with a wonderful sense of place and history.

I looked forward to my time reading this each night and I enjoyed the way the clues unfolded and how the story wrapped up in the end.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am pleased to offer my honest review and recommend this to other readers who love a good mystery.

Landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River. Sheriff Brody Dern is called in to investigate the murder of Jimmy Quinn. I have read many novels by William Kent Krueger who also wrote the Cork O'Connor novels and I look forward to reading more from him. Krueger knows how to keep the reader going until the very ending of the book. The novel is beautifully written and is very thought provoking. If you like powerful novels then you will love this book.

"The River We Remember" begins on Memorial Day 1958 in the small town of Jewel, Minnesota. As the people of Jewel gather for the annual "Decoration Day" parade to remember and honor the town's fallen heroes, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. As Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero, begins investigating Quinn's death, it seems everyone in Jewel has a reason to want Quinn dead. The community is still reeling from its WWII wounds, and the townspeople have been greatly affected by the losses of their loved ones. Before Brody has the results of Quinn's autopsy, violent and dangerous rumors swirl around Jewel that Quinn was murdered by Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who is married to a Japanese woman. As fingers are pointed and the town is torn apart, Brody struggles to find the truth about Quinn's murder while also putting to rest demons from his past. Many of Jewel's townspeople are struggling with their own tragic histories, and as Brody investigates Quinn's death, their secrets may be exposed.

"The River We Remember" is a gripping novel that is more than just a murder mystery. This book tackles difficult issues of racism, prejudice, loss, and grief. Krueger's beautiful writing and compelling storytelling really take you back to small-town life in the 1950s. At times, the book's pacing was quite slow, but at other times I was completely engrossed in the story. This was my first time reading one of Krueger's novels, and I will definitely be reading more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Read if you like:
•Historical fiction
•Whodunits
•Slow builds
•Small-town life

Content warnings: sexual assault, child abuse

Kent is a natural storyteller and writes spellbinding novels of times forgotten. He knows how to captivate readers with the beauty of his words. This is another genuine page turner, with a memorable cast of characters, vivid imagery, and emotions that hit your core. That was time well spent.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The River We Remember
By: William Kent Krueger
Pub Date: 9/05/2023
Publisher: Atria

Falling into any Krueger story is an encompassing experience. He’s such a gifted storyteller that the rest of the world just kinda fades away.
This is a standalone novel that takes place in 1958, in small town Jewel Minnesota. The town holds a parade every Memorial Day that most of the town attends. Sheriff Brody Derm is contacted during the parade about a dead body floating in the river. As the investigation begins it becomes clear that they have a suspect. Noah Bluestone is a Native American veteran who returned from WWII with his Japanese wife who the town has a lot of hard feelings for. The investigation seems to lead Brody away from Noah as a suspect but before he can do anything about the true criminal all hell breaks loose. Will the right man face charges? You will have to pick up The River We Remember to find out.
Thanks to Atria for the Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

William Kent Krueger is an amazing story-teller. From the first page of The River We Remember, I felt like I was a character within the story. In small town Jewel, Minnesota, the body of Jimmy Quinn is found washed up on the shore of the Alabastor River half-eaten by catfish. From that point on, we not only learn about the notorious life of Jimmy Quinn, but also about many different towns people from Jewel. While I loved the story and characters, I felt like the plot was a bit slow; I wish it could have been a bit more fast-paced. Ultimately, I loved how Krueger created another character with the Alabastor River and and stated that "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 remember 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."

Readers can’t go wrong choosing a new book by William Kent Krueger, Minnesota author of the Cork O’Connor mystery series. His third stand-alone novel following Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land, The River We Remember takes its place among my favorite books of 2023 and as one I’m likely to reread down the line.

A two-page Prologue speaks of the Alabaster River, its beauty, its centrality to local lives, and of how people may easily fall in and out of love with each other, but love the land so much that they are willing to die—or kill—for it. After this somewhat ominous note, Krueger speaks of the river at sunrise or sunset when visitors can see many kinds of fish feeding, a pleasant scene until he zeroes in on the channel catfish, the “mudsuckers, bottom feeders, river vultures,” who will eat anything. A shocker of a single sentence, follow-up paragraph propels readers forward into Chapter 1: “This is the story of how they came to eat Jimmy Quinn.”

On Decoration Day 1958, as Jewel, Minnesota, population 4,000, honors its military veterans with a parade and picnic, Sheriff Brody Dern skips the festivities to play chess with Felix Klein, the local jail’s current inmate. Herman Ostberg bursts in, struggling to explain what he has seen in the nearby Alabaster, the Black Earth Clarion’s editor. Sam Wicklow. immediately behind Ostberg, sensing a story. Little does Sheriff Dern expect the news that will turn Jewel and Black Earth County upside down.

As Dern, Deputy Asa Fielding, and retired Sheriff Conrad “Connie” Graff, quickly brought in as a temporary deputy, investigate, they recognize that many of the locals, including members of the deceased’s own family, have possible cause to have killed Jimmy Quinn. However, local fingers point at Noah Bluestone, a retired career Marine and a Sioux married to a Japanese woman. Racism is rampant, and World War II is little more than a decade in the past. Accusing Noah Bluestone comes easily. After a recent argument, Jimmy Quinn fired Bluestone from his job as a farm laborer, simultaneously causing Bluestone’s wife Kyoko to lose her job doing household chores for the ailing second Mrs. Quinn.

With inmate Felix Klein’s remark that feeding the catfish was one of Jimmy Quinn’s few unselfish acts in life and with information from Quinn’s family, the sheriff realizes almost anything is possible. With Quinn found clad only in his boxer shorts, might he have drowned swimming? Did he commit suicide? Was he murdered by Bluestone or by one of the many who held a grudge against him?

Krueger divides the novel into two parts: Part One: Black Earth County (Prologue-chapter 23) and Part Two: The River We Remember (chapters 24-56). As regional geography and history come into play, bringing this fictional Southern Minnesota town and county to life, physical and emotional wounds surface and influence thoughts and action, revealing local residents in all their human complexity. This is a story of love and loss, secrets and search for truth, war and peace haunted by war, a story of those who have killed and don’t want to kill again, those who have lost a limb, a spouse, or a parent, and those who have survived one of war’s deadliest attacks.

Readers should find themselves immediately drawn into the story as I was, wanting not only to unearth the truth of what happened to Jimmy Quinn, but also to discover the stories, injuries, and secrets of others characters and to see them come to terms with life.

My thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance reader copy of this treasure of a book.

Shared on GoodReads and Barnes & Noble.

This is another of Krueger’s moving novels about a community, their actions, and their reactions to the death of a local man whose body is found in a nearby river.

What ensues is the process of classifying the death as an accident, a suicide, or a murder. The local sheriff is at the head of the investigation, but many community members play large parts in this story. And as the tale moves along the reader gets to know each of the characters intimately. During an exciting and dramatic climax, all is revealed. But the consequences of this significant event reverberate for years to come.

Krueger is again at his best throughout this beautiful and descriptive tale. It is one that readers should sit down and envelop themselves in, and its richness needs to be savored.
This is one I highly recommend!

I’d like to thank NetGalley, William Kent Krueger, and Atria Books for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

4.5 stars rounded up. So thankful to Netgalley and Atria books for my electronic advanced reader copy since I loved This tender land and Ordinary Grace by this author.

I went into the story blind and truly would recommend that.

The river we remember is a different story about the murder in a small town in Minnesota in 1950. Covers many things going on during the time period and things that happen in a small town. I truly enjoyed the characters and they are so deeply written. The last chapter and epilogue had me in tears and just wrapped up the story.

All opinions are my own.

William Kent Krueger is a talented writer and this book doesn’t disappoint. The story is beautifully written, thought provoking and hard to put down. The River We Remember exams human nature and choices we make and the consequences of these choices.

This book is so much more than a murder mystery. It tells of life in a small town USA and how events affect the residents that live there. The story has it all from murder, to prejudices, to preconceived notions and so much more. The author has skillfully woven a story of characters scarred by their pasts and secrets, yet they come together to support each other.

I would highly recommend this book. It is definitely worth reading. One of my favourite books read so far.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this novel.

Another stellar stand-alone from Krueger. The way he portrays Minnesota and its people through a historical lens is outstanding. What struck me is that every character was well developed. We saw the flaws and vulnerabilities of each one. So rare to have so many rich characters in such a compelling novel.

Love this book-another winner from Krueger. Hints of Harper Lee run through the novel, tracing the small town after the body of a local man is found in the river. Everyone in the town immediately blames the native American ww2 vet, Noah Bluestone a transplant to the town. The local town cop and war hero, Brody dern being to investigate and what follows is the tale of a small town at odds with one another during growing pains in our history. What is a murder and courtroom mystery hides the deeper themes of racial injustice and trauma that will keep readers turning the pages.

A poetic and lyrical read that will should be everyone’s fall tbr list!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Another gem by William Kent Krueger! Such excellent descriptive writing that unfolds a story not so much about a murder, but about the people of Jewel, Minnesota, the battle between good and evil, and how lives are picked up and carried on in spite of that evil. This book is so character driven, and the characters are so well written that I felt if they were right beside me narrating the story themselves. Krueger's books keep getting better and better!