Amy Pease

Northwoods: A Novel by Amy Pease takes readers to a resort area on a lake in northern Wisconsin. When Eli North is not on duty, he spends most of his time drunk. If not for his mom being Sheriff, as well as the fact that the department is very short staffed and hardly has a budget, he would not have a job as Deputy.

If not for the job, he would not have had to go to Cabin Six to deal with a noise problem. Visitors to Beran’s Resort expect peace and quiet. The folks that spend time there will call the law quickly on others. Businesses in the local area are going under, for a variety of reasons, so tourism dollars are important. All this means that somebody from the short-staffed Sherman County Sheriff’s Department has to respond and should do so quickly. On this night, that means Deputy Eli North.

He was drinking and floating in the lake when reached by dispatch. It takes him some time to get dressed and get to the cabin. It also means he is alone when he finds the body of a young boy in the bottom of a boat tied to a dock outside of a cabin where the stereo had been far too loud. The Sherif is soon on the scene and knows the boy.

Ben Sharpe is his name. He also isn’t the only child in trouble at the lake.

What follows is a highly atmospheric and enjoyable read. Eli North is barely hanging on, in a variety of ways, and the case regarding the death of Ben and the search for another child, is both a lifeline and a danger to him. Much is going on in Northwoods: A Novel by Amy Pease.

This review barely skims the surface to avoid spoilers. It is well worth your read. My hope is that this is the first book of a series as I very much enjoyed it.

While Lesa Holstine has not read/reviewed it, I am pretty sure I first learned of the book via a comment or three about it on her weekly, What Are You Reading, blog posts. I get a lot of book recommendations that way which is why I have over 80 books from the Dallas Public Library System here at the house.

My reading copy came from the Dallas Public Library System via the OverDrive/Libby App. A wonderful thing that I can pretty much work these days thanks to extensive tutoring by Scott.

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