Review by Jon C. Stott. Near the end of Sharon Kennedy’s The SideRoad Kids: Tales from Chippewa County, one of the characters muses: “It’s hard being 12. It’s like we’re in between.” Kate, who is in sixth grade, realizes that when the school year ends, an important stage in their…
Review by Jon C. Stott Roadkill Justice: Featuring Yooper Woodswoman Nettie Bramble is set somewhere in the north-central section of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (I think, maybe, in Baraga County), there’s a place called Budworm. Residing there are such people as Sammy Snert, Miss Linda Figgy (aka Miss Figgy), Tag Elder,…
‘Anatomy of a Murder’ Lives On Review by Rick Gould Robert Traver’s Anatomy of a Murder has enjoyed many lives. There was the actual Upper Michigan murder the summer of ’52. The case inspired the 1958 best-selling novel. The book became a classic 1959 film. There was a 2009 documentary….
Review by Deborah Frontiera In Odin’s Eye: A Marquette Time Travel Novel, Tichelaar’s main character, John/Neill Vandelaare, wakes up with no memory of who he is or how he came to be in a bed in the home of the Allen family. The year is 1900, the place, Marquette, Michigan….
Review by Mack Hassler Two texts in the general literature far from the UP come to mind as the reader listens to the strong first-person opening of Roadkill Justice: Featuring Yooper Woodswoman Nettie Bramble here, “Me and Ma live off the land. That and her government check. My name’s Nettle…
Review by Mack Hassler Trained as a medievalist but now working mostly with stories about Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Tyler Tichelaar has learned how to weave in and out of time references perhaps from his work with Chaucer or the King Arthur stories. He has done a…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera It is a bit sad to reach the end of Sigrid Undset’s epic, Olav Audunssøn, with the fourth subtitled Winter. For readers not familiar with Undset’s work, do not be afraid to start with this one. The author includes enough backstory so a reader does…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera This novel is set during the summer and fall of 1942 in the Sault Ste. Marie area. The fictional Portstown, with its lighthouse, is described as being on Lake Superior about half an hour from the Soo. (Perhaps based on Bay Mills?) In the first…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner In the novel Delta County, J.L. Hyde brings to life the struggle of a young woman, named Heather, who suffered a lot of losses and felt driven to get to the bottom of the questionable deaths of her parents and best friend. The story primarily takes place…
Review by Brad Gischia You never know what you’re going to get when you open up a book of short stories. That’s part of the fun of it. If they’re good you’re golden, you find yourself turning pages and wishing for a little more of these characters or situations, however,…
Review by Nikki Mitchell Redead by Tim Gould is a humorous and witty take on an anti-hero’s experience in a zombie apocalypse. The main characters are from lower Michigan and make their way into the U.P. over the course of the book. Instead of chapters, the book is told in…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Karen Dionne’s “The Wicked Sister” is a novel filled with suspense and murder nestled in a wilderness setting with no phone service. The first chapter begins with Rachel envisioning a scene with her holding a rifle and killing someone she loved, and part of the story appears…
Review by Victor R. Volkman Fans of Terri Martin’s serialized stories in UP Magazine, published monthly by Porcupine Press, will be thrilled to see a new novelization of them in the just-released book High on the Vine. This is her second humor anthology following Church Lady Chronicles: Devilish Encounters. Although…
Review by Victor R. Volkman The Dockporter by Dave McVeigh and Jim Bolone is a rollicking trip to Mackinac Island, that jewel of the Great Lakes that The Detroit News says sees more than 1 million visitors per year. The island sees it all, from busloads of U.P. school kids…
Book Reviewer: Sharon Brunner James M. Jackson painted a picture with “Granite Oath” of suspense and mystery about a missing woman, illicit drugs, prostitution and corrupt corporations. The location of the mishaps and tribulations occurred in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P.) which began deep in the woods with an…
Review by Victor R. Volkman What is it about wintertime that lends itself so supplely to the horror genre? Beginning with Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” in 1908, the dangerous beauty of winter was driven home. Now throw in a dash of the supernatural, as in John W. Campbell’s…
Review by Mack Hassler I think a writer develops a kind of cockiness that is helpful when he or she is accepted by the “teams” of publication in a culture. The great poet Virgil was close to the Emperor Augustus. Writers need patrons and mentors, and they need the teamwork…
Review by Mack Hassler One of our great origin texts Genesis speaks of “giants in the earth” (chapter 6, I recall) prior to its own set of stories. These ancient “fathers” may have included the light dinosaur flyers. Some of the champion ski jumpers apparently make use of their trim…
