The Burning Grounds

 Abir Mukherjee is hardly a new author, just new to me. I ran across a review of this book, The Burning Grounds, and chose to take it on. This story turns out to be the sixth mystery novel in the Wyndham & Banerjee series. This is a story about former partners who have been estranged for several years as the result of the outcome of a prior case. It takes place in Calcutta in the 1920’s when India was a colony of England. Both men have left India and have only recently returned to the country. The murder of a prominent man, a wealthy philanthropist with a hidden dark side, was assigned to Wyndam, and then a relative of Banerjee, a female photographer went missing. The cases are intertwined which essentially forced the two men to work together again. The body of the philanthropist was found with his neck sliced open in the grounds where corpses were taken to be burned. It turned out that man had financed a movie with a rising female star who seemed to be attracted to Wyndam. 

As much as this story was a murder mystery, it was also a dive into the social struggles of the time, India with its cast system, and the palpable race and economic divisions of the populace which had to be taken into constant account. This is a great book, a good plot, with excellent characters. Now I have a new author to explore. There are five novels that precede this one in the mystery series, and three other books already published by this author. When I can get to it, I’ll read the first one, A Rising Man, which was published in 2016.

Apostle's Cove by William Kent Krueger

Krueger has a long history with Cork O'Connor - this is his 21st O'Connor outing.

O'Connor is the retired sheriff in Aurora, MN. From there, left for a few years to be a Chicago cop, then came back. Joined the force for a few years, won an election, make that a lot of elections. Now retired, he lives with his immediate and extended family way the hell up nort' near the legendary Boundary Waters. He took over a local hamburger stand but still does some PI work when the need arises.

His son, Steven, is in law school and moonlights a bit for a non-profit dedicated to freeing the wrongly convicted from prison. When shuffling through the stacks of potential cases, he finds one from Aurora. Axel Boshey is serving a life term in the Stillwater, MN prison. He confessed to the brutal murder of his wife.  The first capital case for the newly elected Sheriff O'Connor.

At the time, it seemed an open and shut case. Blacked-out drunk Indian (who already beat a manslaughter charge years earlier), a philandering wife. While all the evidence pointed to Boshey, some seemingly trivial details were left hanging. At the time, the evidence and confession pointed only at Boshey. 

In the light of 25 years, those details don't seem so trivial, at least to Steven so he asks his dad if he might review the case to see what might've been missed or overlooked or lost in the shuffle of a quick closing of the case.  Cork agrees. The thought that the wrong man was incarcerated and that the real killer might still be free drive him to make things right. 

That's the premise. The narrative breaks into two parts: Then and Now. 'Then' is told in first person as it happened. The killing, investigation, confession, incarceration; takes upwards of 60-65% of the book. A significant backstory. 'Now' is told similarly. First person, as it's happening.

The main characters are Cork and family, a hippie flake (Aphrodite) who moved into area and formed a bit of a commune (replete with hipsters, alcohol, drugs, and free love), the cops of the time (one of whom Cork defeated in the first election, other is a racist pig against the native population), and various colorful locals, their kids and grandchildren. In particular, Chastity (Aphrodite's child) and Boshey (her husband) and two of Chastity's kids (neither by Axel; Moonbeam and Sunny).

Axel gets sentenced to life and turns his life around from being an unreliable drunk to becoming a bit of a healer for inmates. Comes to realize this calling may be why was really locked away. When Cork sees Axel 25 years later, Axel tells him he doesn't want to be released, that he's needed in the prison more than Cork needs to set him free. 

That the real killer may still be around, Cork goes off on his own trying to piece together a complex interaction of what turns out to be a series of seriously demented people Cork thought he knew.

As stated above, this is Krueger's 21st book featuring Cork O'Connor. That means he's got a following and must be pretty successful to boot (lots of NY Times bestsellers).  He also have four other unrelated novels, three of which I've read and reviewed here. One of which, Ordinary Grace, is one of the best books I've ever read and won the 2014 Edgar Award for best fiction (the book version of the Oscar for Best Picture. If you've not read Ordinary Grace, you really owe it to yourself). Not really sure how many Cork O'Connor books I've read and reviewed here. Whatever that is, there are more. 

While reading this book, I had a feeling that this is a book he'd started way back when, put it aside and never got back to it. But after a while, he resurrected the manuscript, and reorganized it to be a cold case book. Regardless, Krueger has presented loyal readers (and newbies, too) with another memorable outing filled with concrete characters, the emotional edge needed for such a story, a comfortable rural setting, native characters and the mysticism that permeates their soul. 

Can't go wrong with Krueger. Betting your local library has a shelf full of his work. It's about time you get to it.  

ECD 

Wild Dark Shore

 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy was published in 2025 and has received numerous awards including a nomination for the 2026 Edgar Award for Best Novel. The story takes place on fictional Shearwater Island which was located about where the real Macquarie Island is, between Tasmania and Antarctic. It had been chosen as a vault for seeds of every possible species of plants. However, as the result of rising sea levels which would eventually make life on the island impossible, the island is scheduled for abandonment. The scientific research station had already been abandoned, so all the scientists that had been located had left by the time the story began. Left behind was a family of caretakers and one scientist who had been chosen to get the content of the vault ready for transport to a better location. 

The story opens with the discovery of a woman, Rowan, who has washed up to the shore following a severe storm. She was alive, but there was no evidence how she possibly could have gotten there. With the help of Dominic Salt and his three children, Raff, Fen, and Orly, Rowan is gradually nursed back to health and she slowly reveals her secrets, including her marriage to the one scientist, Hank, who had been left behind to sort the seeds and get them ready for a transfer to a safer location.. Dominic had brought his children there eight years earlier following the death of his wife during child birth for Orly. Rowan was searching for her husband, Hank, but she discovered her own mixed feelings about the marriage. The isolation from the rest of the world was taking its toll on the remaining inhabitants.

 

This is really a story about life and death, and the emotions that go along with that. There’s the death of life on the island, the death of Dominic’s wife, possible murder of scientists, death of the inhabitants before they could get rescued death of the seeds that had long been protected, the drowning of Rowan as she gives her own life to save Orly. This story is very well-written with fascinating characters and a skillfully unfolding plot. I agree with the awards that have come to McConaghy for this novel, so it gets a 5/5 rating from me.

South, Scott and Amundsen's Race to the Pole

 After reading the accounts of polar explorers Shakleton and Amundsen, I decided to read the short (less than 100 pages) nonfiction account of the intense race between the two Antarctica explorers, Scott and Amundsen, as told by Hunter Stewart in South, Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the Pole. Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen were both determined to be the first to arrive at the South Pole. They had different ideas about how to form a polar expedition, and they were intense competitors. Shakleton was not a part of this particular race. It was in 1914, three years later, that Shakleton’s unsuccessful but heroic adventure occurred. 

Amundsen was methodical in his planning, and he was proven correct that dogs would be the key to his success, unlike Scott who travelled with a much larger group of men Scott also took along motor vehicles and ponies, both of which proved to be problematic. He didn’t trust dogs to be useful enough, a decision that Amundsen proved to be wrong. Amundsen a smaller group of men and he took a lot more dogs with him. Neither ponies nor cars were a part of his planning. Both explorers wrote about the hardship from the weather, although Shakleton really did a better job as he wrote about the hardships of traveling in such a remote and harsh climate.

 

Scott had trouble with his cars and ponies and that resulted in a month later start than Amundsen. The travel itself, much by foot, was arduous, incredible, breathtaking. Given the material, this reader came away with respect for having Amundsen as a leader, and it was very easy to dislike the dictatorial and self-centered efforts of Scott. Amundsen arrived at the South Pole on 12/14/11, and Scott arrived 34 days later. Amundsen made it back home to Norway, but Scott never made it back to London, having died during his belated effort to reach the pole and then get home again.

 

This short book was definitely worth reading, and it maybe the best primer that I’ve read so far as I prepare for a touristy visit to the Palmer Peninsula of Antarctica. I’ll be crossing the Drake Passage in a luxury liner, unlike the 22-foot row boats that Shakleton had. It was the Hunter’s author’s quotes from Scott’s diary that was most interesting. The diary was found in his tent and under Scott’s frozen body. Despite his failures, Scott argued in his diary that it was merely bad luck with poor timing and weather that led to his failures, not any mistake that had made in planning for this expedition. He refused to accept his responsibility for his own fatal end and that of his loyal crew.