2026 Book Review #21:Northwoods

 

I had been seeing excellent reviews for this new-to-me author, and since this is her first novel and set in Wisconsin, I thought I'd try it.  Now, apparently, she has a 2nd book out that is a sequel to this one so I'll have to request that at the library. This was a fast, good mystery drama. 

STORY SUMMARY

 Eli North is a police officer and his mom, Marge, is the boss. She's the Sheriff of the Wisconsin county in Shaky Lake, a small northwoods community. They have a really small budget and Marge is overwhelmed with the current opioid epidemic going on in the county. 

Eli is a vet who carries some major emotional trauma and wounds from his time in Afghanistan. His marriage is over.  He rarely sees his son, Andy, who is only 12. Part of Eli's problem is that he is becoming an alcoholic. His drinking is getting worse every day. But...

The body of a teenage boy(Ben Sharpe)  is found on a boat in the lake...by Eli....and this begins to set in motion a lengthy investigation that Eli is a part of and that leads to the very wealthy country club community in town, along with a pharmeceutical salesman, and a missing teen girl named Caitlin Wallace who happens to be the only child of the salesman, Calvin Wallace. 

The autopsy shows that Ben died of a drug overdose...yet he never took drugs in his young life!! 

The FBI sends in a young agent named Alyssa and it's up to Marge, Eli, and Alyssa to go on the hunt...not just for Ben's killer, but for the person (or people) behind this opioid crisis. 

Will Eli solve the case of the missing girl, find Ben's killer and resolve his own emotional conflicts? Or will the  that haunts him and Shaky Lake continue to bring destruction to the Northwoods?  

MY THOUGHTS

This is a great read!  I loved the character development and the setting. 

There are some themes that intermingle in each character's life:  addictions (drugs alcohol, and work), divorce, post traumatic stress disorder/emotional trauma from war, "Big pharma" issues, forgiveness of self, redemption, parent-child bond. 

The setting was perfect for this story....I loved the author's descriptions of the town, the country club, and the lake. 

The mysteries wrapped up quickly and were definitely not predictable. There's a slight twist in the end that I didn't see coming and I liked how the author ended the book. 

I found no editing errors in this book! And it's a clean read with no f bombs. Excellent writing!

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older. 

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10. 

Sunday Stealin'

This week we aren't stealing, we're contributing! These are questions suggested by our "usual suspects." They were entertaining, which isn't a surprise because our participants are bright and fun. Thanks to everyone who took part.

I'm linking up at this blog to participate in the Sunday Stealin' meme and answer my own question! 

1. Would you rather have every traffic light turn green or always get the best parking spot? (Kwizgiver)

The best parking  spot by far. I check texts at red lights so......

2. What's the most difficult thing you have ever done? (Gold in the Clouds)

Say "good-bye, you have been the best dad and grandpa a daughter could want, but go be with Jesus now Dad.  It's ok."  as my dad lay dying in his nursing home room. Truly the hardest thing I've ever  witnessed. He died of dementia brought on by deep grief.  it was 2017. Mom died suddenly of a heart attack in 2012.  He just could not go on without her and quickly failed mentally and emotionally. It was the absolute most horrifying thing to witness. 

 3.What information do you know that you are proud of/happy about, but others say, "Who cares?" (Roger) 

The names of all the mountains in the Adirondacks and Catskills with fire towers for the hiking challenge. Most of my friends, and definitely my extended family, don't care. 

4. What mystery do you wish you knew the answer to? (Myra/Mevely)

Why did God create black flies?  More seriously: Where IS the Ark of the Covenant???? (i'm not Jewish but I really wanna know!!) 

5. What small, ordinary thing brings you disproportionate joy? (Country Dew)

my first morning mug of steaming coffee.  you have NO idea the level of joy I feel. 

6. What time do you go to sleep/wake up?  (Annie)

Now that I'm no longer teaching full time, I tend to go to bed about 10:30-10:45 and read til 11 or 11:30.  Like clock work I wake up almost every day between 6:15-6:45.  I usually am out of bed by 6:45.  Except on hiking days in the ADK in the summer and autumn when my alarm goes off at 5. 

7. What is your favorite sleeping position? (Lisa)

on my left side. 

8. Describe your personal Utopia. (Pandora) 

Living in a place similar to the Netherlands/Finland: life is happy there. Currently they are the happiest people on the planet. There is a way better balance between work vs pleasure. They are content with what they have. They are peaceful. They have good, and free,  health care for all. They have a better social structure. They have trusted government officials. They know to let children play and don't give   a lot of ridiculous homework to the younger children. They have personal freedoms without all the systemic barriers we do and definitely without the corruption. 

9. Imagine that you have a machine that can create any new invention for you based on your description. What you ask the machine to create, and why? (Plastic Mancunian)

can there please be some kind of machine that gets rid of narcissistic political "leaders" and dishonest businesspeople? 

Seriously: I'm not super creative when it comes to things that would need to be invented. Maybe a type of backpack that helps push me up a steep mountain ? 

This was fun! Play along! Thanks to Joyce for creating this. (do i have the correct name??) 

JUNE FAVES

 June is well underway and I absolutely love it. I'm bascially living outdoors this month either in the backyard, or on the deck in the backyard, or at a lake, or in the woods and next week on a mountain top. And  at the end of the month, at the Atlantic! And every evening, outdoors until about 9 when it finally gets dark and the mosquitoes come out. June is just glorious in the Northeast and we are having a gorgeous...although a bit hot....this month. We've had hotter than usual days this week (it's been feeling more like July and the central air has been going on around 2 pm to cool our house down for sleeping). 

Besides the blessing of central air, I'm sharing FIVE blessings that top my list....called FAVES with other bloggers who do the same and we all link up at Susanne's blog.  Head over here to learn more and join in! 

FIVE FAVES

Noodle bowl with veggies, chicken
and their specialty spicy chili sauce

veggie miso ramen noodle soup

• DATE DAY!  After  church, Dave and I had a date for Sunday dinner. It was kind of spontaneous but because we both were more  dressed up than usual for church, and it was such a perfect late Spring day, we headed to a ramen noodle place in the next town over that Dave has been to, but that I had never experienced.  It was fantastic!  There were only a few people in there at 1:30 pm. I love living in a diverse region with lots of diverse, ethnic restaurants. This place is affordable and we will be back even though it's not right in our own town. Dave had the ramen noodle soup and I had the noodle bowl. Everything was delicious and we had a nice time to really talk about some upcoming vacation plans as well as the sermon we had just heard. I'm thankful I didn't have to cook on Sunday and for my husband suggesting a date day! 

Lake Bonita from the west side trail

SoulSteps Hikers
l-r: Shawna, Annette, me, Dave D

Lake Bonita from the east side trail 

• MORNING HIKE:  I had originally had 6 people signed up for a Tuesday morning hike but 1 person actually dropped out of the group entirely the day before  and the other person injured her knee so had to cancel.  The 4 of us decided to leave an hour earlier than planned so we began hiking at 9 AM.  We wanted to hike the 3 mile lake loop followed by the trail to another smaller lake named Lake Ann.  Nope. The air was starting to get super hot and humid, so we started on a side trail just to see what it was like and after .2 miles we turned around as it became super thick, ankle deep mud!  So we finished the loop trail at just 3.4 miles and called it a day. We all enjoyed this hike and it was my 4th time hiking around the very pristine Lake Bonita. (no boats are allowed on the lake so it is super clean).  The hike is only 30 minutes north of my home so we were home by 11:30! I'm thankful the members liked it as it was their first time on it. I'm also thankful we got the early start and that everyone was in agreement with it! 

growth!

• GROWING!  My buttercrunch lettuce is finally taking off and growing!  I've been so careful with this gardening in a pot thing.  I move it to under the umbrella during the hot sunny mid-day and today I'm bringing it indoors because we are expecting a severe thunderstorm later with a cold front coming through (Yay...temps back to the 70s where they belong!).  I'm so thankful that this weekend we will enjoy the first of some home grown greens. I read to pick the bigger leaves first leaving the centerl leaves to continue growing. 

Spring semester small group
l-r: Shawna, Jill, Anita, Maggie, Cindy

• DINNER ON THE  DECK: Tuesday night was the last night of the small group Bible study at my house. I'm now on break from leading a women's small group until mid-September when Autumn begins. We decided, since we were done discussing the book, to have a deck dinner. I provided 2 large chicken pesto pizzas from this place (We took a vote on which pizza we'd have) along with various sparkling waters, lemonade, and stuff for making rum and cokes and dark n stormies.  I also made cucumber water which was a big hit as it was a HOT evening. I'm thankful each person brought something to add to the meal: salad, chocolate brownies, an Indian pastry, Italian cookies (that platter was huge so I took it to the church the next morning and gave it to our pastoral and worship teams to enjoy as I didn't want all that sugar in the house), chips and 2 kinds of dip. We all had a great time of fellowship and  sharing what we would be doing this summer in the way of vacations. This was a fun group.  My friend Cindy, who used to go to our church, joined us this semester. She goes to a different church down in the town where she lives. I'm thankful to have led this great group of women and that we had a fun, relaxing evening on a perfect night that felt more like summer than Spring! 

Schroon Lake Town Park/Beach
central Adirondacks 

• SPONTANEOUS SWIM DAY! My two friends Maggie and Jill and I decided rather spontaneously to go to one of my fave lakes that they had never been to on Thursday morning.   Maggie gave me gas money and Jill paid for my iced coffee when we got to the village as I introduced them to the best coffee shop in the ADK. We set up in the shade under a large oak tree and I snapped this pic from my beach chair. We couldn't even sit in the sun it was so hot. It truly didn't feel like June. This mountain lake is huge and the town park is one of my fave  places in the central region of the ADK. Neither of them had ever been to the town park/beach or to swim in the lake!  They loved it. I had fun showing them around the village and then we swam, ate good food, and I had made a carafe of Mai Tai's which were a huge hit. The lake water was beautiful...we stayed from 10:15-2 pm. The village of Schroon Lake/the lake is about 1.5 hours north of where I live, located in the lower high peaks/upper central region of the Adirondacks. and because our schools are all still in session, the beach was basically just retired folks and a few families with preschoolers.  There was a family from VA there and we just think it's so funny that those children are done with school because we go until the last week of June! We had a blast and I'm so thankful we had a fun day. 

Maggie, me, Jill

Those things totally made me say "Thank You, God" .  Of course there are always more than 5 blessings to our weeks.. .....I should mention that another blessing that tops my faves would be the evening my husband Dave and I sat outdoors on the deck well past 9 pm just talking and sharing about our day and planning our upcoming Anniversary trip.  

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Weekend Wrap-Up on a Monday!

 

Even in my third year of retirment, the weekend seems to fly by, and although I don't get up at 5 AM anymore on a Monday and can have a slower start to the day, the day still has its chores, errands, and obligations. Today was a tough one. It began with an early morning text, followed by a missed phone  call, then a 2nd call  from same person who at least this time left a voice mail. (I was in the shower) I tried calling back only to get no response. So started on another chore, only to have the phone ring from same person so this time I picked up. I wish I hadn't.  The conversation was draining. It was important but it was emotionally draining.  How do you help someone who doesn't acknowledge that they're in pain (emotional) and refuses to consider counseling. Sigh. But....I didn't let it spoil my day although it did cut into my day and I ended up missing a meeting with the group I volunteer with.  I went out to fill my tank and noticed the gas prices have fallen in our neighborhood by about 50 cents. I was pleasantly surprised. It's still ridiculously high but I guess it will continue to be so. After filling the tank, I had to take the long way to the grocery store as some road pavement was going on......not a great start to the day but I was determined to not let that annoyance ruin my day, either!  

As I drove I reflected on the weekend.  It was actually a really great weekend! 

Friday started with Dave working from home, and so I had worked on some hiking group issues, along with sending out the July hiking list to the members. That's 46 emails. I also include a special note to each person in the email. I technically have 56 members currently, but some of those are children and spouses of people who have signed up with just one email. 

Friday night was just a simple meal of homemade fish fillets (vegan for me)  with homemade tartar sauce and a zucchini/summer squash dish.  For our Friday evening treat, Dave thought it would be fun to go get ice cream from this place.  I ordered the chocolate chunk oat milk ice  cream and he had soft serve raspberry vanilla. We sat at one of the  tables watching the planes come in and just talked and talked for the longest time. It was a beautiful, feels almost like summer, evening.

This is what Dave's ice cream looked like: 

This is what my ice cream looked like (I chose to have a small in a dish):

 When we got home, it was dark so we sat out on the deck for a bit ( I have solar lamps/lanterns) and talked some more then came inside and I spent the rest of the night reading and working on hiking stuff. 

Saturday was a day where it was partly sunny/partly cloudy with a threat of thunderstorms (which we never got).  Dave and I slept in a bit, had breakfast together (Eggs on a waffle with vegan sausage and raspberries/blueberries), and then while I did some laundry folding and put fresh sheets on the bed, he got ready to go to his monthly gaming event in a city to the west of us.  I left around 10:30 to head up to these outlets to see if I could find 2 pairs of shorts from the LLBean Outlet.  I did!  I found black hiking/kayaking shorts for our end of the month vacation as well as a pair of chambray blue shorts, also for vacation for walking the Cape Cod National Seashore trail or for the Botanical Gardens/Heritage Museum.  I might wear a casual dress to the Battleship Cove as then I can go straight out to our Anniversary dinner and we won't have to go back to the hotel to change. At any rate, I was able to use my Bean Bucks so saved $20 there and the shorts were both on sale for 30% off!  The outlet store has items from the regular store anywhere from 25%-75% off.  

Here's pic of the exact hiking shorts I bought: 

and the casual day trip shorts

except the ones I bought are a lighter blue like chambray 

Since my sister Joy just lives 1 exit south of the Lake George outlets exit, I popped in to see her new paint job in her living room/dining area.  We ended up talking for almost 2 hours! It had been raining when I arrived in Lake George, but by the time I left Joy's the sun was back out and it was actually pretty hot! 

When I got back home, I did a little more housework, then did some reading and had quite a few emails to answer. 

Dave got home earlier than he planned so I ended up making dinner earlier than usual as he hadn't really had lunch. 

After dinner, we sat out on the deck and talked and then he wanted to do some stuff in his upstairs office, so I watched a really good movie on Netflix called Searching. It was very eye opening!!  It was about a teen girl who just seemingly disappears overnight and her dad, a widower, tracks her down via all of her social media content. This fictional family literally had their entire lives online. Yikes. Highly recommend the movie! 

We spent some time on the deck together chatting and then it was time for bed! 

Sunday was gorgeous. Dave had to go online and converse with the employees in India for about an hour so I made coffee, showered, read the morning paper, and then we were able to leave for church for the 11 AM service. We spent time after the service  chatting with friends and our oldest daughter and her bf and then Dave  suggested we have a lunch date, just the two of us, at a Ramen noodle place he had been to as it's near his  work but I had never been there. The food was amazing! The service was outstanding and the prices were so reasonable. We will definitely be back! They even have an extensive wine and beer list although I drank unsweetened iced tea. 

I chose one of the shredded chicken noodle bowls
that came with cucumbers, carrots, scallions, red pepper flakes,
 garlic, bean sprouts with hand pulled thin noodles. 
The sauce I ordered was the mild spicy soy vinaigrette
it was So good and the portion size was perfect!

Dave had the Veggie Ramen Noodles soup
 with Miso ...he said it was delicious 

After dinner, we took a scenic drive  over by his work along the Mohawk River and back home. We spent the late afternoon reading, and I made Lemon Blueberry Muffins for breakfast this week since it was raining outside.  The rain didn't last long though. The evening was very cool.  We were so full from our lunch date which was really more like Sunday Dinner so in the early evening, I had hummus and some veggies and cheddar cheese and Dave had a muffin and a zero beer. He wanted to do some gaming thing so I did some more reading after sending out hiking reminders for tomorrow's hike. 

It was a nice weekend! 

What did you do this weekend?