Washed Up

by Susan Koefod

The shocking discovery of a drowned newborn washed ashore on the banks of the Mississippi River forever changes 11 year-old Abatha Cox and Somerset Hills, the small Minnesota community she calls home. Lead investigator Arvo Thorson is the only person trusted enough to investigate the baby's murder, but he's drowning too--in a toxic cocktail of whiskey, vodka and gin--and his career will be dead in the water unless he can solve the crime. Christine Ivory, the brainy, fashionable and compulsively organized social worker caring for the girl has never been more intent on thwarting Arvo.

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2011

About the author

A native Minnesotan, Susan Koefod spent much of her girlhood taking long bicycle rides and walks through hilly Dakota County and along the Mississippi River. Such excursions typically filled her imagination with poetry and story ideas. She invariably thought of herself in the third person and was the first character in her early stories. Ultimately, she relegated herself to the background as she could always invent more interesting characters to play the starring roles.

Susan Koefod is an award-winning novelist. Her Arvo Thorson mystery series debuted with Washed Up [North Star Press], which was praised by Library Journal as “a smashing debut with astute observations and gorgeous prose.” The series includes Broken Down and Burnt Out. Her short stories have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and other place. Her latest novel is Albert Park: a Memoir in Lies. Susan won a Loft McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers, a distinction of excellence and a $25,000 award open to Minnesota fine artists and writers.

She lives in West St. Paul, Minnesota, with her family.