ORDINARY GRACE - WILLIAM KENT KREUGER

     The first time I came across this author was when I literally stumbled over his book. Someone left it on the floor and of course, I found it! Good find, though. It was one of the early books of his Cork O'Connor mystery series set in Minnesota, away from the larger cities there. This series tells of the stories and travails of Cork O'Connor and very quickly the reader becomes quite involved with the family and friends. They are gently written though the questions raised and the experiences undergone are not so quiet. It is best to go back to the beginning and read them through. You will enjoy it. It is not just a good mystery story, but a continuing saga of a family.
     However, the latest book, Ordinary Grace, is a stand alone novel, also in Minnesota and set in 1961. For many of us, certainly for me, that was a time of golden years of childhood. I was allowed a bit more freedom, the music on the radio was still filled with doo wop and the sweet and innocent words of love as well as the famed story songs of teen tragedy. We were all inspired by our young and charismatic president and life seemed go on in a bright light. Yet underneath it all something was lurking for soon after we had the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of JFK, RFK, the Vietnam War, and the hippies and flower children turning into SDS, Black Panthers and bombs and explosions.
     In this novel we see that underneath a supposedly friendly small town there lurks more, something dark. Also gently written, it quickly enmeshes the reader as we read of a coming of age of a thirteen year old boy told from the adult version of that child some forty years later. I highly recommend this book as well as his major series. Happy reading!
     For those of you who like finding new authors and books, we have the new book club on the first Thursday of the month beginning in October, Classroom B in the Clubhouse 10-12. We are looking for different books, not the classics and not the best sellers, but books that one might never have found, certainly not had the opportunity to discuss, if not for the book club and the recommendations of its members. Come join us - all welcome.