CANR
WORK TITLE: THE STREEL
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BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Golden Valley
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 265
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born April 16, 1952; daughter of Robert P. (an auditor) and Ruthmary Logue; married Pete Hautman (a writer).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, editor, and educator. Village Voice, New York, NY, proofreader and copy editor, 1981-83; Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, manuscript consultant and copy editor, 1983-85; Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, MN, editor, 1986-88; Creative Company, Mankato, MN, editor, 1995-2000; Mid-List Press, Nashville, TN, freelance editor, 2002—; has also worked as freelance editor for Coffeehouse Press and Milkweed Editions. The Loft, Minneapolis, writing teacher, 1977—; Hamline University, St. Paul, MN, instructor in children’s literature program. Exhibitions: Soft sculptures exhibited at Farnham Galley, Simpson College, Indianola, IA, 2013.
AVOCATIONS:Rug hooking.
MEMBER:Mystery Writers of America.
AWARDS:First Book of Poetry award, Mid-List Press, 1990, for Discriminating Evidence; Minnesota Book Award, 2000, for Dark Coulee; Best Book for Young Adults designation and Quick Pick for Reluctant Young-Adult Readers designation, both American Library Association, and Books for the Teen Age selection, New York Public Library, all c. 2000, all for Dancing with an Alien; Wisconsin Library Association Literary Honor, 2005, for Bone Harvest; Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination (with Pete Hautman), Mystery Writers of America, 2007, for Snatched; Caldecott Medal Honor Book and Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor Book, both 2013, both for Sleep like a Tiger, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski.
WRITINGS
Contributor to anthologies, including Twin Cities Noir, Akashic Press, 2006. Contributor to periodicals, including American Quilter, Calyx, Heliotrope, Hungry Mind Review, Minnesota River Review, New York Times, Rug Hooking, Scape, Village Voice, and Yellow Silk.
SIDELIGHTS
A versatile writer, Mary Logue has established a multidimensional presence in the literary world as a poet, editor, author of mystery novels for adults and teens, and writer of children’s books. Logue has received numerous honors for her work, including an Edgar Allan Poe award nomination for her young-adult thriller Snatched and a Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor Book citation for her picture book Sleep like a Tiger. Commenting on her ability to write in a variety of genres, Logue told Minneapolis Star Tribune interviewer Laurie Hertzel: “Poetry is my home base. For me, everything comes out of that. I try to give the world to my readers in images (having said that, I do love to write dialogue)—be it a novel or a children’s book.”
Logue is best known for her “Claire Watkins” adult mysteries, which center on the adventures of a deputy sheriff in western Wisconsin. In 2020 she initiated the historical “Deadwood Mystery” series, which is set in the Dakota Territory in the late 1800s. She has also penned numerous books for children, among them biographies of nineteenth-century British poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, East Indian activist Mohandas Karamchand “Mahatma” Gandhi, U.S. author Helen Keller, and noted animator Walt Disney. Also for children, her novels The Haunting of Hunter House and The Missing Statue of Minnehaha introduce a spunky young heroine with a penchant for solving mysteries. Barb and cousins Burr and Smidgen glimpse a light in the window of a vacant house and investigate the phenomenon in the first, while The Missing Statue of Minnehaha finds the trio at summer camp where they investigate the disappearance of a prized statuette.
Sleep like a Tiger
In Sleep like a Tiger Logue offers a fresh take on a familiar theme. With bedtime approaching, a young girl tells her parents that she is not sleepy enough to call it a night. Instead of reprimanding the child, the clever and sympathetic adults coax her into pajamas and patiently respond to her questions about the sleeping habits of animals ranging from cats to bears to snails. Left alone with her imagination, the youngster mimics the actions of the various creatures and gradually mellows toward drowsiness.
Illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, who earned a prestigious Caldecott Medal for her efforts, Sleep like a Tiger prompted Lynn Vance to comment in School Library Journal that “the narrative flows well as the mood becomes increasingly tranquil.” Ilene Cooper, writing in Booklist, explained that “Logue’s lovely, poetic text, which is high flying but never highfalutin, twins well with … Zagarenski’s inventive mixed-media artwork.”
Dancing with an Alien and Snatched
Logue’s works for young adults include Dancing with an Alien, the story of teenage alien Branko, who comes to Earth to find a wife. All the potential mates on Branko’s home planet have died and there is a desperate need for women who can bear children. When he finds Tonia, a woman he really loves, he cannot ask her to go through the ordeal of constant childbearing after all. According to Paula Rohrlick in Kliatt, “Logue conveys the overwhelming feelings of first love nicely” in Dancing with an Alien, while Trish Anderson noted in School Library Journal that the author “uses the agonizing choices and different voices to develop the characters with whom readers can sympathize.”
Logue collaborated with husband Pete Hautman on the “Bloodwater” novels, teen mysteries set in the small town of Bloodwater, Minnesota. In Snatched readers are introduced to Roni Delicata, a hard-nosed reporter for the local high-school school newspaper, and brainy but nerdy freshman Brian Bain. When wealthy classmate Alicia disappears and is presumed kidnapped, Roni and Brian form an unlikely partnership and set out to crack the case. Logue and Hautman “skillfully weave two narratives together here: one following Alicia, the other following the amateur sleuths,” Connie Fletcher explained in Booklist, and Rohrlick wrote that Logue’s mystery contains “snappy repartee, a jaunty sense of humor, and lots of suspense.” In School Library Journal B. Allison Gray similarly noted that in Snatched “the mixture of suspense and humor is effective.”
Skullduggery and Doppelganger
In Skullduggery, the next installment in the “Bloodwater” series, Roni and Brian stumble upon a mystery during a class field trip. While exploring Bloodwater Bottoms, a wooded area slated for development, the two discover a cave containing human bones as well as an injured archaeologist who possesses what appears to be an ancient relic. Rohrlick commented of Skullduggery that Logue and Hautman’s “amiable mystery offers humor and surprising turns of events.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that “the adventures of these meddlesome junior sleuths … are quite entertaining,” and in Booklist Carolyn Phelan found the novel to be “written with wit and style,” making it a “satisfying page-turner.”
With Doppelganger Logue and Hautman offer a “well-plotted and suspenseful tale,” according to Rohrlick. As she peruses a missing-child Web site, Roni spies an age-progressed photo of a Korean-American youth who looks suspiciously like her sleuthing partner. When Roni starts asking questions about Brian’s past, his adoptive parents seem reluctant to answer. Meanwhile, a photo of Brian published in the newspaper draws the interest of several suspicious characters. “The plot twists” in Doppelganger “are fast and furious and the conclusion is satisfying,” Sheila Fiscus commented in School Library Journal, and Phelan praised the book for its “smart dialogue, quick pacing, and likable protagonists.”
Lake of Tears and The Streel
(open new)In Lake of Tears, the ninth novel in the “Claire Watkins” series, Watkins is serving as acting sheriff when a corpse is found in a Norwegian longboat replica that was burned in an autumn ritual. Claire’s daughter Meg, who was at the boat burning, has a crush on one of the murder suspects, who happens to be one of her own deputies. The victim had been due to wed the following day but was recorded flirting with several men in the days leading up to her death. Watkins traces a lead back to the war in Afghanistan to uncover what may have happened. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews said that this novel “is a tense psychological mystery, compulsively readable, that may seem obvious but offers up some surprising twists.” Booklist contributor Barbara Bibel observed that the author “effectively deepens her well-plotted, small-town mystery with a sensitive look at the issues faced by returning veterans.”
Logue published the historical novel The Streel in 2020. Siblings fifteen-year-old Brigid and sixteen-year-old Seamus Reardon are sent to America by their impoverished Irish parents. Seamus heads to the Dakota Territory while Brigid becomes a domestic helper for a wealthy family in Minnesota. When their mother dies, Brigid joins Seamus in the gold-mining town of Deadwood. When Seamus is accused of killing a prostitute he was in love with, Brigid sets out to discover the killer’s true identity.
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described it as having “a compelling narrative of Irish immigration, determination, and murder in 1887.” The same reviewer mentioned that “the easily solved mystery introduces a gritty, charming, clever protagonist whose musings provide a perfect period feel.” A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked that “a well-constructed plot, lilting prose, and a heroine who’s determined to escape constricting female roles make this an exceptional” novel. Writing in an eponymously named blog, Randee Green found The Streel to be “an interesting historical mystery,” although “the mystery was fairly easy to figure out.”(close new)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 1, 1993, Marie Kuda, review of Still Explosion: A Laura Mallow Mystery, p. 1415; October 15, 2000, Jenny McLarin, review of Dark Coulee, p. 424; April 1, 2004, David Wright, review of Bone Harvest, p. 1353; May 1, 2006, Connie Fletcher, review of Snatched, p. 42; May 1, 2007, Carolyn Phelan, review of Skullduggery, p. 44; May 1, 2008, Carolyn Phelan, review of Doppelganger, p. 46; May 1, 2010, Barbara Bibel, review of Frozen Stiff, p. 28; October 1, 2012, Ilene Cooper, review of Sleep like a Tiger, p. 54; January 1, 2014, Barbara Bibel, review of Lake of Tears, p. 50.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, July 1, 2006, Elizabeth Bush, review of Snatched, p. 499.
Horn Book, July 1, 2006, Christine M. Heppermann, review of Snatched, p. 442; November 1, 2012, Robin L. Smith, review of Sleep like a Tiger, p. 71.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2001, review of Glare Ice, p. 1249; April 1, 2004, review of Bone Harvest, p. 303; April 15, 2006, review of Snatched, p. 407; September 1, 2007, review of Maiden Rock; September 1, 2012, review of Sleep like a Tiger; December 1, 2013, review of Lake of Tears; March 15, 2020, review of The Streel.
Kliatt, March 1, 2002, Paula Rohrlick, review of Dancing with an Alien, p. 24; May 1, 2006, Paula Rohrlick, review of Snatched, p. 10; May 1, 2007, Paula Rohrlick, review of Skullduggery, p. 13; March 1, 2008, Paula Rohrlick, review of Doppelganger, p. 14.
Library Journal, April 1, 1993, review of Still Explosion, p. 135; November 1, 2000, Rex E. Klett, review of Dark Coulee, p. 141.
Publishers Weekly, April 5, 1993, review of Still Explosion: A Laura Malloy Mystery, p. 68; October 2, 2000, review of Dark Coulee, p. 61; October 15, 2001, review of Glare Ice, p. 48; November 24, 2003, review of The Wolf Who Loved Music, p. 64; May 24, 2004, review of Bone Harvest, p. 44; September 22, 2008, review of Point No Point, p. 41; October 1, 2012, review of Sleep like a Tiger, p. 95; March 9, 2020, review of The Streel, p. 45.
School Library Journal, July 1, 2000, Trish Anderson, review of Dancing with an Alien, p. 107; April 1, 2001, Pam Johnson, review of Dark Coulee, p. 171; June 1, 2006, B. Allison Gray, review of Snatched, p. 158; June 1, 2007, Michele Capozzella, review of Skullduggery, p. 146; July 1, 2008, Sheila Fiscus, review of Doppelganger, p. 99; December 1, 2012, Lynn Vanca, review of Sleep like a Tiger, p. 94.
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), June 9, 2013, Laurie Hertzel, “A Q&A with Author Mary Logue.”
Voice of Youth Advocates, August 1, 2007, Rollie Welch, review of Skullduggery, p. 242; December 1, 2007, Elsworth Rockefeller, review of Doppelganger, p. 427.
ONLINE
Kirkus Reviews Online, http://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (November 2, 2012), Julie Danielson, review of Sleep like a Tiger.
Mary Logue website, http://marylogue.com (April 15, 2020).
Randee Green, https://www.randeegreen.com/ (December 1, 2019), Randee Green, review of The Streel.
Star Tribune Online http://www.startribune.com/ (June 9, 2013), Laurie Hertzel, “A Q&A with Author Mary Logue.”
"I would have wanted to be a writer when I was a child if I had known it was possible. When I could only read two words: "you" and "I," I went through a wholebook and circled them. I knew reading was the key to the rest of the world. I wrote my first mystery when I was in sixth grade—it was about a mysterious trail around a pond. I continue to write about mysterious trails around Lake Pepin in my Claire Watkins mystery series. Some things never change.
Poetry, however, is the foundation of my work. I have written four books of poetry, my latest is Hand Work, which came out in 2009. This book was the result of an experiment to write a poem a day for a year. I have also published a young adult novel, Dancing with an Alien, and the Bloodwater mysteries with Pete Hautman. My non-fiction books include a biography of my grandmother, Halfway Home, and a book on Minnesota courthouses, both published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.
I was an editor at the Village Voice, Graywolf Press, and The Creative Company. I've published articles in the Village Voice, the New York Times and the Hungry Mind Review. For many years I taught at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Currently, I'm on faculty in the low-residency Children's Literature MFA program at Hamline University in St. Paul.
I am bi-riverbank, living on both sides of the Mississippi, with writer Pete Hautman in Minnesota and Wisconsin. And Rene and Jacques, our toy poodles." – Mary Logue
MARY LOGUE is the author of the acclaimed Claire Watkins mystery series, including most recently Bone Harvest. An award-winning poet, she lives with writer Pete Hautman in the Wisconsin bluff country, the setting for the Watkins novels. Visit the author’s website at www.petehautman.com/marylogue.html.
A Q&A with author Mary Logue
Mary Logue knew as a child that reading was the key to the rest of the world. And at some point, she realized that writing was the key to her particular world.
By LAURIE HERTZEL JUNE 9, 2013 — 3:58PM
GLEN STUBBE – DML - STAR TRIBUNE STAR TRIBUNE
Author Mary Logue
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Mary Logue knew as a child that reading was the key to the rest of the world. And at some point, she realized that writing was the key to her particular world.
Logue, who has homes in Golden Valley and in western Wisconsin, has been creating graceful books of prose and poetry for more than 30 years. She has worked as an editor, a manuscript consultant and a writing teacher, and she has lived elsewhere in the United States and abroad. But she has never strayed for long from her love of writing — poetry, primarily — and her love of Minnesota.
Her novels, mysteries and children’s books have won an impressive number of awards, including a Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award for her picture book “Sleep Like a Tiger,” a Minnesota Book Award, an American Library Association “Best Book” honor and many others. She has collaborated on a young-adult series with her husband, writer Pete Hautman. And if all that isn’t impressive enough, she also hooks beautiful rugs.
Logue is the author of “Giving Up the Ghost,” the Star Tribune’s first serialized novel.
Q: You’re a very versatile writer. Do you have a favorite genre? And why do you move around so much in the writing world?
A: Two answers to these questions: 1) Poetry is my home base. For me, everything comes out of that. I try to give the world to my readers in images (having said that, I do love to write dialogue) — be it a novel or a children’s book. And 2) I don’t think I distinguish much between all the forms of writing. Usually when I get an idea it comes in the form it should be — if that makes sense. A line, a thought, I will try to capture in a poem. A scene, a conflict, usually should be a novel.
Q: Describe your writing space.
A: Unfortunate that you should ask me to do that today. It’s a bit of a mess. I’m in the midst of deadline work and my office was a bedroom and serves also as my dressing room, so I have piles of clothes on the floor, waiting to be washed or put away. When I’m not quite so busy I manage to keep it more tidy. I have a bookshelf for all my French books, one for inspirational books and then one for my books. I also have a gathering of creatures that watch me work — a collection of old kachina [figures], a carefully selected group of poodles, a few tigers (one playing an accordion) and other small and odd totems I have acquired. I have one brown wall that’s covered with artwork and photographs, many of my sister Dodie’s paintings of trees.
Q: This book, “Giving Up the Ghost,” is notable for its strong sense of place — both the cabin Up North, and also the glimpses we get of downtown Minneapolis. Are you a lifelong Minnesotan?
A: I am and very proud of it. Early childhood in Shoreview and Osseo, then grew up in Lake Elmo with a pond in the back yard and a dirt road out front. We spent many summer vacations Up North, visiting relatives. Moved to Minneapolis when I went to the University of Minnesota and then have lived there most of my life. While I have also lived in France, Belgium, New York City and Tucson, I always come back home.
Q: A lot of the book’s humor comes from incidental anecdotes and vibrant details — the behavior of the cat, the small child solemnly praising the refrigerator magnet, the artist hanging the turkey-and-wine-stained tablecloth on the wall as though it were a painting. Where did these details come from?
A: For this book, more than many of my others, I mined my life and the lives of my friends for these stories. The ghost story in the mansion on Franklin Avenue was told to me by a woman I worked for. Some of the scenes have been pushed a bit — I’ve never witnessed a roast turkey flying through the air, but I would like to.
Q: Did this story come from any particular incident in your life?
A: Not really. I just wanted to write a ghost story, and I wanted to write a love story. This tale was the result.
Q: Do you believe in ghosts?
A: I think I might have had my main character say this in the book, but I don’t not believe in them. Until I see one myself I will be a skeptic. And if I see one, I have always hoped that there would be someone with me to share the experience.
Logue, Mary THE STREEL Univ. of Minnesota (Fiction None) $22.95 5, 12 ISBN: 978-1-5179-0859-1
Logue kicks off a new series with a compelling narrative of Irish immigration, determination, and murder in 1887.
Fifteen-year-old Brigid Reardon and her 16-year-old brother, Seamus, reluctantly leave Ireland for the United States, forced out by the potato famine. At sea they meet Paddy and Billy Hennessy, who save Brigid from being raped by the steerage captain. Once they reach New York, the three boys take jobs with the railroad, and Brigid takes one at a boardinghouse. When the boys end up working a gold claim in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, Seamus sends Brigid money to go to St. Paul, where she takes up a much better position with the wealthy Hunt family, who treat her well. The son of the house, Charles Hunt, is strikingly attractive and dangerous to women, and his improper attentions force Brigid to seek a home with Seamus in Deadwood. After a harrowing trip, Brigid is welcomed by the boys, who share a house and work their claim when they aren’t enjoying the pleasures of the town. Seamus introduces Brigid to his love, Lily, a streel (or prostitute) whose beauty makes her wildly popular. On Christmas Eve, an exhausted Brigid bows out early from their party. While looking for firewood the next morning, she discovers Lily stabbed and partially covered by snow. Seamus is forced to run when Sheriff John Manning, who hates him, arrives along with Al Swearingen, Lily’s boss, looking to arrest him for murder. Seamus escapes, leaving Brigid to seek evidence that will exonerate him while keeping house and even working at the mine. Deadwood is a wild amalgam of small businesses, hotels, theaters, and bars peopled by miners, whores, and a thriving Chinese community, all of which Brigid finds fascinating. When Charles shows up with an offer to buy the mining claim, life becomes exponentially more dangerous for her.
The easily solved mystery introduces a gritty, charming, clever protagonist whose musings provide a perfect period feel.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Logue, Mary: THE STREEL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2020, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A617192936/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f59afad5. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.
The Streel: A Deadwood Mystery
Mary Logue. Univ. of Minnesota, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-5179-0859-1
In 1877, 15-year-old Brigid Reardon, the narrator of this superior series launch from Logue (the Claire Watkins mysteries), and her 16-year-old brother, Seamus, are dispatched by their impoverished Irish parents to America. Seamus seeks his fortune out West, while Brigid, who knows she must go into domestic service, winds up with the wealthy Hunt family in St. Paul, Minn. Just as she catches the eye of handsome heir Charlie Hunt, she receives news of her mother's death. After praying to St. Brigid, she realizes she needs to be with her only family in America and sets out to join Seamus in Deadwood, a taw gold-mining town in the Dakota Territory. Soon after her arrival, Seamus is accused of murdering a prostitute he was in love with. After Seamus flees, it's up to Brigid to find the real killer. Her investigation is hampered by male reluctance to see women as anything except wives or whores--and further complicated by Brigid's uncertainty about how smooth-talking Charlie views her. A well-constructed plot, lilting prose, and a heroine who's determined to escape constricting female roles make this an exceptional regional historical. Readers will look forward to Brigid's further adventures. (May)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
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"The Streel: A Deadwood Mystery." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 10, 9 Mar. 2020, p. 45. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A617968226/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a1fe4ab5. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.
Logue, Mary LAKE OF TEARS Tyrus Books (Adult Fiction) $24.99 1, 18 ISBN: 978-1-4405-7150-3
The answer to a rural murder may lie in Afghanistan. Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins becomes acting sheriff when her boss has a heart attack. Things have been peaceful in Fort St. Antoine, Wis., but that all changes when the remains of a body are found in the replica of a Norwegian longboat burned on the shore in an autumn ritual. Claire's daughter Meg, who is soon leaving for college, feels an instant attraction to a man she meets at the boat burning, little knowing that he will soon be a murder suspect. Claire calls in a forensic expert who uses dental records to identify the remains as those of Tammy Lee Johnson, whose fiance, Terry Whitman, has just reported her missing. Although Tammy Lee and Terry are scheduled to wed soon, Tammy Lee has been flirting with Andrew Stickler, her high school boyfriend and the new man Meg is dating. Andrew's not only eight years older than Meg, he's also a deputy working for her mother and a man who has issues to deal with from an incident in Afghanistan that almost got him killed. Both Andrew and Meg have some reservations about dating, but their strong sexual attraction overcomes their doubts. Although Claire likes her deputy, he still joins that jealous fiance on her suspect list, and she asks Meg to stop seeing him until the murder is solved. As Claire and her staff work to find the killer, Meg and Andrew find it impossible to keep apart, until another murder opens the investigation to new possibilities. The latest from Logue (Maiden Rock, 2007, etc.) is a tense psychological mystery, compulsively readable, that may seem obvious but offers up some surprising twists.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Logue, Mary: LAKE OF TEARS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2013. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A350763214/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e7928f34. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.
Lake of Tears. By Mary Logue. Jan. 2014. 208p. Tyrus, $24.99 (9781440571503); paper, $16.99 (97811440571510); e-book (9781440571527).
Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins is enjoying a quiet summer in Fort St. Antoine, Wisconsin. She is a bit anxious about her daughter, Meg, who will be going off to college in the fall. The annual celebration of the autumnal equinox features the burning of a Norwegian long-boat, and it always attracts a crowd. This year, more than the boat goes up in flames. When a camper notices some bones in the ashes, Claire has a murder case on her hands. Since her boss is recovering from a heart attack, she is acting sheriff and must coordinate the investigation. Her new deputy, Andrew Stickler, is a veteran returning from Afghanistan who is dealing with post-traumatic stress and, much to Claire's chagrin, dating Meg. When the murder victim is identified as Andrew's former girlfriend, things get complicated. To find the murderer, Claire will have to learn about Andrew's war experiences and how they affected him. Logue effectively deepens her well-plotted, small-town mystery with a sensitive look at the issues faced by returning veterans.--Barbara Bibel
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 American Library Association
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Bibel, Barbara. "Lake of Tears." Booklist, vol. 110, no. 9-10, 1 Jan. 2014, p. 50+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A357147555/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=12c4bf73. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.
A REVIEW OF THE STREEL: A DEADWOOD MYSTERY BY MARY LOGUE
Reviews
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THE STREEL by Mary Louge will be published on May 12th 2020 by University Of Minnesota Press.
It is the late 1880s, and times are hard in Ireland thanks to the potato famine. In fact, times have been hard for a considerably long time. To help ease her family’s burden, fifteen-year-old Brigid Reardon—along with her brother, Seamus—is sent to America to establish a new life. After spending some time working as a maid in Minnesota, Brigid travels to the Black Hills of South Dakota to join Seamus. The morning after Brigid arrives in Deadwood, she finds her brother’s fiancée murdered. The local sheriff has decided that Seamus must be guilty of the crime. While Seamus flees the area, Brigid teams up with his friends to clear his name and work their gold claim.
THE STREEL is an interesting historical mystery. I’ll admit that my main reason for reading it was because it was set in the early days of Deadwood, South Dakota. I was also intrigued that the main character was a female immigrant. Brigid is only in her early teens, and her nativity shows in the early parts of the novel. As she gains more worldly experience, she begins to mature. The focus of the novel is more on Brigid’s journey than the actual mystery. Overall, I thought the mystery was fairly easy to figure out.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.