Reviewed by Sharon Brunner
Mike Cronan tells a story of greed, corruption, and murder in his “Yooper Murders of Mackinac County: A Sheriff Joseph Francois LaVake Mystery.” The story takes place in St. Ignace and the surrounding areas, such as Moran and Brevort. At one time, the author lived in St. Ignace, located in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan (E.U.P.), and currently, he lives in Illinois near his adult children and grandchildren. The main characters in the story were Sheriff LaVake and Fishduck. Other characters who appeared were Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials, LaSalle High School teachers, a major hacker, bar owners, tribal men, women and elders, hitmen, Chicago mobsters, and others I may have forgotten to mention. With the backing of Russians, a Chicago mob purchased a lot of land in Mackinac County (also located in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan referred to as the E.U.P.) to turn the area into a Yooper Disneyland. The cold-hearted acts of murder occurred as a result of the mob not getting their way. They operated under two options: pay for services ordered to be rendered or meet a deadly end. Many of the people living in St. Ignace lived in fear and did not know who was going to die next.
Cronan utilized a unique blend of past and present. For example, the Snake Pit was mentioned many times throughout the book, a place most of the characters frequented, which has been closed for many years. My uncle Floyd’s band “The Country Cut-Ups” existed during the twentieth century and I lost my uncle in 2013. Edward Snowden, connected to the National Security Agency (NSA) scandal was mentioned along with Elon Musk and Warren Buffet as investors and a character named Billy interviewed Zuckerberg from the Facebook corporation, all current names.
Some of the themes that appeared in the book were greed; the history of St. Ignace and surrounding areas; and tribal cultural beliefs. The Chicago mob had a goal in mind to make a lot of money from their perspective customers. They would stop at nothing to accomplish that goal. Throughout the book, Cronan provides information about the St. Ignace area. He went into detail about the history of Line 5, the line that pumps oil from Canada to the United States, and seriously threatens Lake Huron, one of Michigan’s Great Lakes. Cronan interspersed tribal legends throughout the book such as the angry spirits in Lake Huron that exist because of Line 5. Line 5 has served as a source of major contention for people who care about the safety of the environment. Another tribal traditional belief was when Fishduck’s grandfather told him that the bears and deer on Boblo Island were descendants of once human spirits who transformed generations ago into deer and bear on Manitoulin Island during a Dreamer’s Rock vision quest.
The book hit home for me. I was born and raised in St. Ignace. I laughed when Cronan mentioned Chico Belonga as one of the suspects. He was my daughter’s fourth-grade teacher. I knew most of the areas Cronan mentioned except for the Salamander farm. That may be fiction. Sand Bay was where I swam as a child. I frequented the area of Brevort when my family camped at the Brevort campground. My husband and I have driven four-wheelers and snowmobiles all over areas in the E.U.P. such as Raco, Brevort, and Brimley, all areas mentioned in the book. I have traveled on the Arnold Line boats to Mackinac Island on many occasions. Mackinac Island was one of my service areas when I worked for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians of which I am a member. I am very aware of a multitude of tribal legends and found the legends Cronan mentioned interesting. Some of the things mentioned in the book were a blast from the past for me especially when he mentioned my uncle Floyd and his band and the Snake Pit. Isaac McCaslin was mentioned in the book as a relative to Sheriff LaVake and every Paquin. I have ancestors who have the LaVake name and I am related to all the Paquins in St. Ignace. On the cover of Cronan’s book is a picture of the Mackinac Bridge and its completion happened the year I was born. I thoroughly enjoy going to the bridge view to observe the bridge and the water. I could relate to so much information in this book but I will end with I consider St. Ignace a beautiful area with lots of interesting history.
When reading this book I was reminded of the book and movie “Killers of the Flower Moon” written by David Grann. During the 1930s, the richest people, the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, were under siege because of the oil discovered on their land. One by one the Osage were murdered or died of mysterious circumstances. Some of the people who investigated the deaths were murdered. When the deaths kept mounting, the newly established FBI created by J. Edgar Hoover, came to the rescue. The Osage died because a multitude of people wanted to gain their wealth. The people murdered in Cronan’s book were killed because they did not comply with the demands of a Chicago mob which was associated with the wealth they sought to accumulate. The second Jurassic Park Movie “The Lost World” starring Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore, reminded me of this book. Roland Tempo, another actor in the movie, played the role of a man who was hired to assist with the hunting and gathering of one the fiercest creatures that ever existed, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and in the movie, he stated he looked forward to the challenge to hunt the fearsome beast. It’s what appeared to be the goal of the Chicago mob when they created the aggressive beast known as the Cinnamon Bear for adventurous rich men to hunt.
I liked it when Miss Bing killed the hitman. She was a West Point graduate and a full-bird colonel who ended her military career to become a chemistry teacher at LaSalle High School. The older woman did not appear to be a threat to the hitman. By the way, I graduated from the same school. It was ingenuous how Cronan had created the Cinnamon Bears by scientists using CRISPR gene editing technologies. The bears were larger, fiercer, and more aggressive than Grizzlies and were created to lure adventure-seeking rich men to hunt at the Yooper Disneyland. Again, I liked how much I could relate to so much in the book because I am from St. Ignace.
I recommend Yooper Murders of Mackinac County for its suspense and mob-style murders, because of its Yooper Disneyland that resembled Dr. Frankenstein’s imagination, its mysterious Delirium Wilderness, and the bravery exhibited by some of the main characters. The book was chock full of the local color of St. Ignace and the surrounding areas. The idea that such pristine forests could be turned into a hunter’s paradise filled with dangerous bears was mixed with semi-historical anecdotes coupled with a mixture of folklore and true stories. You will also enjoy the first book in the series, Father Marquette’s Trail of Bones.
Book: Yooper Murders of Mackinac County
Author: Mike Cronan
