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Frank Yakabuski #1
Ragged Lake
As the history of a murdered family is pieced together, Detective Frank Yakabuski learns something criminal has been happening at Ragged Lake, with roots going back decades....
The debut in a pause-resisting trilogy from award-winning writer Ron Corbett.
Gruesome murders, a northern secret, and a buried past
While working one afternoon on the Northern Divide, a young tree-marker makes a grisly in a squatter's cabin near an old mill town, a family has been murdered.
An army vet coming off a successful turn leading a task force that took down infamous biker criminals, Detective Frank Yakabuski arrives in Ragged Lake, a nearly abandoned village, to solve the family's murder. But no one is willing to talk. With a winter storm coming, Yakabuski sequesters the locals in a fishing lodge as he investigates the area with his two junior officers. Before long, he is fighting not only to solve the crime, but also to stay alive and protect the few innocents left living in the desolate woods.
A richly atmospheric mystery with sweeping backdrops, explosive action, and memorable villains, Ragged Lake will keep you guessing - about the violent crime, the nature of family, and secret deeds done long ago on abandoned frontiers.
The debut in a pause-resisting trilogy from award-winning writer Ron Corbett.
Gruesome murders, a northern secret, and a buried past
While working one afternoon on the Northern Divide, a young tree-marker makes a grisly in a squatter's cabin near an old mill town, a family has been murdered.
An army vet coming off a successful turn leading a task force that took down infamous biker criminals, Detective Frank Yakabuski arrives in Ragged Lake, a nearly abandoned village, to solve the family's murder. But no one is willing to talk. With a winter storm coming, Yakabuski sequesters the locals in a fishing lodge as he investigates the area with his two junior officers. Before long, he is fighting not only to solve the crime, but also to stay alive and protect the few innocents left living in the desolate woods.
A richly atmospheric mystery with sweeping backdrops, explosive action, and memorable villains, Ragged Lake will keep you guessing - about the violent crime, the nature of family, and secret deeds done long ago on abandoned frontiers.
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First published October 3, 2017
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September 1, 2022
A straightforward murder mystery set in Northern Ontario
Lucy Whiteduck, like so many other unfortunate Canadian aboriginal children, led a troubled and difficult childhood. And that all too short life, which, at the suggestion of a psychiatrist, she had taken the time to document in a lengthy journal, ended all too abruptly with the brutal, savage murder of her entire family. When a young man working for a local pulp mill stumbles on the grisly scene of their deaths, Frank Yakabuski, a police detective and a former Special Forces soldier, highly decorated from his tour of duty in Bosnia, is sent to investigate.
If any murder can be characterized as routine, Yakabuski’s work in Ragged Lake looks to be a straightforward workmanlike investigation in a tightly confined, remote community in Northern Ontario (with definite overtones of Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE). But the story quickly morphs into an all-out war and deadly fire fight between police and organized biker gangs who will stop at nothing to ensure the complete eradication of every last bit of evidence linking them to what will likely prove to be one of the largest meth labs in North America.
To call Corbett’s simple unadorned style of writing pedestrian would be unfairly harsh. The back-and-forth transition from first person story-telling in Lucy’s journal to third person narrative in the rest of the story is well done and, as a straight-up thriller, RAGGED LAKE is completely compelling and a great page turner. But, as a Canadian fond of the northern wilderness and embarrassed by Canada’s treatment of its aboriginals, I felt there were so many missed opportunities for a somewhat more intense, dare I say, literary approach to the description of the setting itself, the culture of small-town Ragged Lake, Lucy’s childhood, and the ongoing racism displayed by so many whites towards aboriginals.
I would have been content with awarding 3 stars out of 5 to say that the overall result for me was good without quite making it into “wow” territory, but I’ll re-award that 4th star on the basis of a wonderful, well thought out ending twist in the final few paragraphs.
Recommended.
Paul Weiss
Lucy Whiteduck, like so many other unfortunate Canadian aboriginal children, led a troubled and difficult childhood. And that all too short life, which, at the suggestion of a psychiatrist, she had taken the time to document in a lengthy journal, ended all too abruptly with the brutal, savage murder of her entire family. When a young man working for a local pulp mill stumbles on the grisly scene of their deaths, Frank Yakabuski, a police detective and a former Special Forces soldier, highly decorated from his tour of duty in Bosnia, is sent to investigate.
If any murder can be characterized as routine, Yakabuski’s work in Ragged Lake looks to be a straightforward workmanlike investigation in a tightly confined, remote community in Northern Ontario (with definite overtones of Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE). But the story quickly morphs into an all-out war and deadly fire fight between police and organized biker gangs who will stop at nothing to ensure the complete eradication of every last bit of evidence linking them to what will likely prove to be one of the largest meth labs in North America.
To call Corbett’s simple unadorned style of writing pedestrian would be unfairly harsh. The back-and-forth transition from first person story-telling in Lucy’s journal to third person narrative in the rest of the story is well done and, as a straight-up thriller, RAGGED LAKE is completely compelling and a great page turner. But, as a Canadian fond of the northern wilderness and embarrassed by Canada’s treatment of its aboriginals, I felt there were so many missed opportunities for a somewhat more intense, dare I say, literary approach to the description of the setting itself, the culture of small-town Ragged Lake, Lucy’s childhood, and the ongoing racism displayed by so many whites towards aboriginals.
I would have been content with awarding 3 stars out of 5 to say that the overall result for me was good without quite making it into “wow” territory, but I’ll re-award that 4th star on the basis of a wonderful, well thought out ending twist in the final few paragraphs.
Recommended.
Paul Weiss
May 11, 2018
I was checking out the 2018 Edgar Awards winners and nominees and came across this title. What really caught my attention is the name of the protagonist, Detective Frank Yakabuski , since Yakabuski is my surname. It is not a common name, especially with this anglicized spelling, except in the Madawaska Valley northwest of Ottawa.
Detective Frank Yakabuski is sent to investigate the triple murder of a secretive family living on the Northern Divide where they built a ramshackle cabin near the almost-deserted community of Ragged Lake. Yakabuski sequesters the locals at the local lodge while he conducts his investigation. He quickly comes to suspect that a motorcycle gang with which he is familiar has moved into the area and may have been responsible for the murders.
Readers should be forewarned that that this is a violent story. The book begins with the gruesome murder of three people, including a child, and by the end, the body count is well into double digits. Both the innocent and the guilty are killed.
The pace is uneven. Early in the investigation, Yakabuski finds the journal of Lucy Whiteduck, the murdered woman. From the journal, we learn about Lucy’s childhood, her time in the big city of Springfield, and her return to the Northern Divide. The journal is necessary for important background information which impacts the present but its inclusion slows down the pace. Then there is a protracted face-off scene where things happen at a frenetic speed.
Apparently, this is the first in a series of books featuring Det. Yakabuski. Considerable background information, therefore, is given about the man. He is an army veteran who served with distinction in several of the world’s trouble spots. As a police officer, he has earned the respect of colleagues. He is definitely a leader who can think logically even in very tense situations. It also becomes obvious that he is willing to bend the rules if he thinks doing so will cause the least harm.
Some of the secondary characters emerge as interesting people since some effort was made to portray them in some depth. The villains, however, are stereotypes; they tend to be totally evil with no redeeming qualities. Yakabuski thinks of the inhabitants of Ragged Lake as “living cheek-to-jowl with true evil” and one character even says, “’There is someone in Ragged Lake who is nothing but evil.’” And then a villain tells Yakabuski there awaits a new sort of evil, “some new sort of whacked-out freak. Something truly fuckin’evil” which Yakabuski has “never seen before.” Is this the prelude to another blood-soaked investigation?
It is the geography of this book which is frustrating. In an author’s note at the beginning, Corbett mentions that since this is a work of fiction, all places are imagined and “there are no literal depictions of any city or town on the Divide.” Springfield, “a northern city of nearly a million people” is supposedly the creation of the author’s imagination, yet he refers to Britannia Heights, Sandy Hill (which has the main campus of the University of Springfield), and Buckham’s Bay, all neighbourhoods of Ottawa. Lucy even applies for a job in “a kids’ store in the Springfield shopping mall called Tiggy Winkles.” I’ve visited Mrs. Tiggy Winkles in the Rideau Centre in Ottawa! I attended the University of Ottawa in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood of Ottawa; on the eastern edge of that neighbourhood likes Strathcona Park. Why does Corbett make it Strathconna? Why bother disguising Ottawa as Springfield? Why mention real village names like Cobden and then make up fake ones like Grimsly? And why change John Rudolphus Booth, lumber tycoon and railroad baron of the Ottawa Valley, to James Rundle Bath?
The Northern Divide is indeed “about four hundred miles” from Ottawa. (I know this because for five years I lived in northern Ontario, not far from the Quebec border; about 25 kms away was a watershed sign which indicates that all waters north of this point flow into the Arctic and all waters south of this point flow into the Atlantic.) Yet Corbett chose to name his Northern Divide town after an actual lake in the southern part of Algonquin Park?
Det. Yakabuski is from High River, “the oldest Polish settlement in Canada . . . in the Upper Springfield Valley.” Why not have him come from Wilno, located in the Upper Ottawa Valley, which is the actual first and oldest Polish settlement in Canada? The surname Yakabuski is very common in the village of Barry’s Bay (10 kms from Wilno), the village where I was born. I’d be willing to bet that is where the author saw the name on his travels between his hometown of Ottawa and Algonquin Park. In Barry’s Bay, he might even have met a Frank Yakabuski!
Perhaps I have an unusual perspective on this book because of my name and where I’ve lived, but I found Corbett’s imagination to be strangely unimaginative. Corbett is almost insulting to the reader; it is as if Corbett expects his readers to be stupid. Two characters in the novel have a conversation about an Englishman who claimed to be an Apache chief. The reader is not to have heard of Archibald Belaney who called himself Grey Owl?
I was hoping to really like this book, but I’m afraid I found it only mediocre. I am not surprised that it did not win an Edgar Award.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
Detective Frank Yakabuski is sent to investigate the triple murder of a secretive family living on the Northern Divide where they built a ramshackle cabin near the almost-deserted community of Ragged Lake. Yakabuski sequesters the locals at the local lodge while he conducts his investigation. He quickly comes to suspect that a motorcycle gang with which he is familiar has moved into the area and may have been responsible for the murders.
Readers should be forewarned that that this is a violent story. The book begins with the gruesome murder of three people, including a child, and by the end, the body count is well into double digits. Both the innocent and the guilty are killed.
The pace is uneven. Early in the investigation, Yakabuski finds the journal of Lucy Whiteduck, the murdered woman. From the journal, we learn about Lucy’s childhood, her time in the big city of Springfield, and her return to the Northern Divide. The journal is necessary for important background information which impacts the present but its inclusion slows down the pace. Then there is a protracted face-off scene where things happen at a frenetic speed.
Apparently, this is the first in a series of books featuring Det. Yakabuski. Considerable background information, therefore, is given about the man. He is an army veteran who served with distinction in several of the world’s trouble spots. As a police officer, he has earned the respect of colleagues. He is definitely a leader who can think logically even in very tense situations. It also becomes obvious that he is willing to bend the rules if he thinks doing so will cause the least harm.
Some of the secondary characters emerge as interesting people since some effort was made to portray them in some depth. The villains, however, are stereotypes; they tend to be totally evil with no redeeming qualities. Yakabuski thinks of the inhabitants of Ragged Lake as “living cheek-to-jowl with true evil” and one character even says, “’There is someone in Ragged Lake who is nothing but evil.’” And then a villain tells Yakabuski there awaits a new sort of evil, “some new sort of whacked-out freak. Something truly fuckin’evil” which Yakabuski has “never seen before.” Is this the prelude to another blood-soaked investigation?
It is the geography of this book which is frustrating. In an author’s note at the beginning, Corbett mentions that since this is a work of fiction, all places are imagined and “there are no literal depictions of any city or town on the Divide.” Springfield, “a northern city of nearly a million people” is supposedly the creation of the author’s imagination, yet he refers to Britannia Heights, Sandy Hill (which has the main campus of the University of Springfield), and Buckham’s Bay, all neighbourhoods of Ottawa. Lucy even applies for a job in “a kids’ store in the Springfield shopping mall called Tiggy Winkles.” I’ve visited Mrs. Tiggy Winkles in the Rideau Centre in Ottawa! I attended the University of Ottawa in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood of Ottawa; on the eastern edge of that neighbourhood likes Strathcona Park. Why does Corbett make it Strathconna? Why bother disguising Ottawa as Springfield? Why mention real village names like Cobden and then make up fake ones like Grimsly? And why change John Rudolphus Booth, lumber tycoon and railroad baron of the Ottawa Valley, to James Rundle Bath?
The Northern Divide is indeed “about four hundred miles” from Ottawa. (I know this because for five years I lived in northern Ontario, not far from the Quebec border; about 25 kms away was a watershed sign which indicates that all waters north of this point flow into the Arctic and all waters south of this point flow into the Atlantic.) Yet Corbett chose to name his Northern Divide town after an actual lake in the southern part of Algonquin Park?
Det. Yakabuski is from High River, “the oldest Polish settlement in Canada . . . in the Upper Springfield Valley.” Why not have him come from Wilno, located in the Upper Ottawa Valley, which is the actual first and oldest Polish settlement in Canada? The surname Yakabuski is very common in the village of Barry’s Bay (10 kms from Wilno), the village where I was born. I’d be willing to bet that is where the author saw the name on his travels between his hometown of Ottawa and Algonquin Park. In Barry’s Bay, he might even have met a Frank Yakabuski!
Perhaps I have an unusual perspective on this book because of my name and where I’ve lived, but I found Corbett’s imagination to be strangely unimaginative. Corbett is almost insulting to the reader; it is as if Corbett expects his readers to be stupid. Two characters in the novel have a conversation about an Englishman who claimed to be an Apache chief. The reader is not to have heard of Archibald Belaney who called himself Grey Owl?
I was hoping to really like this book, but I’m afraid I found it only mediocre. I am not surprised that it did not win an Edgar Award.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
October 9, 2017
There is plenty of violence in Corbett's debut, the first in the Frank Yakabuski series, but it is the gorgeous writing that makes the biggest impression. Whether it is describing a howling storm, depicting the way the fire following a meth lab explosion turns the snow to rain, or sharing the quiet sounds a building makes when everyone has gone to sleep, Corbett enthralls with his writing. Purists may dislike his use of phrases rather than full sentences at times, but his razor-sharp, economical use of words manages to portray a sense of place and depth of feeling better than the most voluble writing.
That direct and to-the-point style of writing suits his main character extremely well. Yakabuski, an ex-military man, is a regional investigator in a land where the regions are huge. When he gets the call that an isolated and reclusive family living in a makeshift cabin far from what passes for civilization along the Northern Divide has been slaughtered, he and his junior officers must snowmobile through the frozen landscape for a full day to reach the area. The town of Ragged Lake consists of just a few people, and none of them is law enforcement. Since the lumbering and milling operations closed decades ago, the lodge, a survival school, and the camp of an elderly Cree woman provide the only ongoing shelter in town other than the squatters' cabin which is the scene of the crime.
When Yakabuski arrives in town, he discovers that lawlessness prevails, with some gangsters from his past having moved into the void. As he attempts to determine what happened to the family, he uncovers the dead woman's journal, which provides history and background regarding the effects of deep isolation and lawlessness as well as the historical relationships between the loggers, millworkers, and native Cree. Beginning with so few residents, Ragged Lake is essentially deserted by the time Yakabuski and the criminals are done with their confrontation. But in the midst of all of the violent action, Corbett allows us to enter the head of the dead woman, giving us a fully realized and sympathetic character. Yakabuski is also well characterized, although we will be learning more about him as the series progresses. Most of the villains are less thoroughly drawn, sometimes fitting neatly into stereotypes.
This is a compelling start to a series set in an unusual location. I am very much looking forward to seeing where Yakabuski is sent next.
This review first appeared at reviewingtheevidence.com.
That direct and to-the-point style of writing suits his main character extremely well. Yakabuski, an ex-military man, is a regional investigator in a land where the regions are huge. When he gets the call that an isolated and reclusive family living in a makeshift cabin far from what passes for civilization along the Northern Divide has been slaughtered, he and his junior officers must snowmobile through the frozen landscape for a full day to reach the area. The town of Ragged Lake consists of just a few people, and none of them is law enforcement. Since the lumbering and milling operations closed decades ago, the lodge, a survival school, and the camp of an elderly Cree woman provide the only ongoing shelter in town other than the squatters' cabin which is the scene of the crime.
When Yakabuski arrives in town, he discovers that lawlessness prevails, with some gangsters from his past having moved into the void. As he attempts to determine what happened to the family, he uncovers the dead woman's journal, which provides history and background regarding the effects of deep isolation and lawlessness as well as the historical relationships between the loggers, millworkers, and native Cree. Beginning with so few residents, Ragged Lake is essentially deserted by the time Yakabuski and the criminals are done with their confrontation. But in the midst of all of the violent action, Corbett allows us to enter the head of the dead woman, giving us a fully realized and sympathetic character. Yakabuski is also well characterized, although we will be learning more about him as the series progresses. Most of the villains are less thoroughly drawn, sometimes fitting neatly into stereotypes.
This is a compelling start to a series set in an unusual location. I am very much looking forward to seeing where Yakabuski is sent next.
This review first appeared at reviewingtheevidence.com.
October 30, 2017
2 stars = it was OK by GoodRead's rating system.
What I really liked about this book was the setting. The author got the weather, the country, the people, the culture all down perfectly. In fact, I felt downright depressed by the closure of the mill, the loss of jobs by the people there and the death of the industry. After I finished the book I actually went and looked up the lake on the map to see how remote it was.
Unfortunately, I felt that the events in the book were dreary too and I don't know if that was by design to coincide with the story. The initial chapters were promising but not much happened when Detective Yak got the to village and the book took a turn for the worse when it got to the victim's journal. The victim's journal was also depressing and it turned into a long side trip that explained the background when I wanted to stay in the present.
The book did get back into the present but I wasn't satisfied with the way Yak handled any of it. And I thought the the reveal was a bit forced.
The main thing which stuck with me from this book was the setting, which is to say the author did a great job of it. However, the story itself was slow and it took me a long time to get through this book because it wasn't something I wanted to finish, rather I had to in order to write the review. I honestly felt like I was one of those guys stuck in the village when the mill closed and had nothing else to do. So good job for making this book realistic, but maybe too realistic. For content I would give this book 3 stars, but I can only give it 2 stars by GR's system because I didn't like the story and wouldn't want to revisit it again.
I got this book as a free ARC.
What I really liked about this book was the setting. The author got the weather, the country, the people, the culture all down perfectly. In fact, I felt downright depressed by the closure of the mill, the loss of jobs by the people there and the death of the industry. After I finished the book I actually went and looked up the lake on the map to see how remote it was.
Unfortunately, I felt that the events in the book were dreary too and I don't know if that was by design to coincide with the story. The initial chapters were promising but not much happened when Detective Yak got the to village and the book took a turn for the worse when it got to the victim's journal. The victim's journal was also depressing and it turned into a long side trip that explained the background when I wanted to stay in the present.
The book did get back into the present but I wasn't satisfied with the way Yak handled any of it. And I thought the the reveal was a bit forced.
The main thing which stuck with me from this book was the setting, which is to say the author did a great job of it. However, the story itself was slow and it took me a long time to get through this book because it wasn't something I wanted to finish, rather I had to in order to write the review. I honestly felt like I was one of those guys stuck in the village when the mill closed and had nothing else to do. So good job for making this book realistic, but maybe too realistic. For content I would give this book 3 stars, but I can only give it 2 stars by GR's system because I didn't like the story and wouldn't want to revisit it again.
I got this book as a free ARC.
September 28, 2017
The focus and strength of this book is largely the setting. Corbett shows us the mostly abandoned, snow-covered, unforgiving land. He does such a great job of placing us in this setting that I found myself chilled, despite sitting here in Florida where the temperature was hovering near 90.
Pacing is slow up to the last quarter, when everything starts to come together (or unravel). The focus on setting and the history of the land often overshadows the murders and investigation. We also spend a lot of time with Yakabuski reflecting back to his childhood and to his time in the military. Some of the details in these lengthy passages eventually play into the present events, but it's a long, circuitous route getting there.
Then we have the murdered woman's journal interjected throughout. Dozens of pages of this journal are plunked into several different sections of the book. We learn her entire life history through this journal. Granted, her story on its own is interesting and would have been compelling had she been the focus in real time. But, shared this way, it only served as a disconnect from the current timeline. Too much of the story takes place in other characters' past, and I lost the intensity and immediacy of the actual investigation.
When we finally get to the action nearing the end, I found it difficult to like or relate to Yakabuski. He seems to have no problem placing innocent people at risk so that he can register a win by capturing the bad guys.
At the end, we have a little thread left dangling, which I assume will continue on in the next book. Despite that, this book does have a solid ending on its own.
*I received an advance copy from the publisher, via Amazon Vine, in exchange for my honest review.*
Pacing is slow up to the last quarter, when everything starts to come together (or unravel). The focus on setting and the history of the land often overshadows the murders and investigation. We also spend a lot of time with Yakabuski reflecting back to his childhood and to his time in the military. Some of the details in these lengthy passages eventually play into the present events, but it's a long, circuitous route getting there.
Then we have the murdered woman's journal interjected throughout. Dozens of pages of this journal are plunked into several different sections of the book. We learn her entire life history through this journal. Granted, her story on its own is interesting and would have been compelling had she been the focus in real time. But, shared this way, it only served as a disconnect from the current timeline. Too much of the story takes place in other characters' past, and I lost the intensity and immediacy of the actual investigation.
When we finally get to the action nearing the end, I found it difficult to like or relate to Yakabuski. He seems to have no problem placing innocent people at risk so that he can register a win by capturing the bad guys.
At the end, we have a little thread left dangling, which I assume will continue on in the next book. Despite that, this book does have a solid ending on its own.
*I received an advance copy from the publisher, via Amazon Vine, in exchange for my honest review.*
February 12, 2023
So this book started off nicely enough, your basic murder mystery with of course some dead bodies and gore.
But about 1/4 of the way in the story line decided to include some incredibly gruesome wartime atrocities, way way over my personal line. These are literally the kind of things that get stuck in my head and I obsess over hours, days, even years. I employed a pharmaceutical solution that sometimes softens the memories more quickly, hoping it will work.
I don't generally feel like it's the author's job to offer trigger warnings - it's a murder mystery after all, but I think there is maybe an editorial decision about where the line is for what you are willing to subject your reader to. In my personal opinion, Corbett and his editing team did not locate the line properly.
As a result, I get a DNF, and I recommend that you do not start unless you have a really bulletproof ability to stomach man's inhumanity to man at its very worst.
But about 1/4 of the way in the story line decided to include some incredibly gruesome wartime atrocities, way way over my personal line. These are literally the kind of things that get stuck in my head and I obsess over hours, days, even years. I employed a pharmaceutical solution that sometimes softens the memories more quickly, hoping it will work.
I don't generally feel like it's the author's job to offer trigger warnings - it's a murder mystery after all, but I think there is maybe an editorial decision about where the line is for what you are willing to subject your reader to. In my personal opinion, Corbett and his editing team did not locate the line properly.
As a result, I get a DNF, and I recommend that you do not start unless you have a really bulletproof ability to stomach man's inhumanity to man at its very worst.
October 9, 2017
I liked this storyline quite a bit. I thought the characters were intriguing and three dimensional although I wanted more personal information on Yak.
There were a few twists which I didn't see coming and made the story more entertaining. I really did like Yak as he is a great detective and very intriguing.
When I finished reading I felt rather sad for the characters of Lucy and Guillaume. Lucy's journal was compelling; she had such true love and hope. Guillaume was pretty interesting as well. The surroundings depicted in Ragged Lake were also a character in that it was so well defined and thought out. I'm definitely interested in reading more about Detective Frank Yakabuski.
There were a few twists which I didn't see coming and made the story more entertaining. I really did like Yak as he is a great detective and very intriguing.
When I finished reading I felt rather sad for the characters of Lucy and Guillaume. Lucy's journal was compelling; she had such true love and hope. Guillaume was pretty interesting as well. The surroundings depicted in Ragged Lake were also a character in that it was so well defined and thought out. I'm definitely interested in reading more about Detective Frank Yakabuski.
March 24, 2019
This was a decent book. It had a good mystery and good characters. It's not often I get the chance to read a Canada-based mystery as most of the ones that I wind up finding are based in America or somewhere else in the world. Anyone interested might enjoy it, though I'm not sure it's for everyone.
May 22, 2024
I was gonna remark this book should have won an Edgar but then saw that it was nominated for best paperback original. Don’t know what it was up against but this should have won.
Then noticed that the author wrote a Yak follow up, defiantly reading that! Great stuff!
Then noticed that the author wrote a Yak follow up, defiantly reading that! Great stuff!
October 5, 2017
Bloody excellent book
January 31, 2022
An overall enjoyable read. Nothing particularly spectacular, nothing spectacularly problematic. The plot was interesting, the characters well fleshed out and believable, the setting unique, and the writing admirable. I liked the way Corbett described things and characterized people. I often find action to be difficult to follow in books, but Corbett did a good job of helping me visualize what was happening during the chaotic climax. I would definitely read more of Frank Yakabuski's mysteries.
January 4, 2021
A good storyline, if just a little farfetched. I'll read the next Yakabuski book to see if this series will stay on my to-read list.
Lots of bad language.
Lots of bad language.
September 19, 2017
Thanks to ECW Press who let me read this as part of their ShelfMonkey program!
This was surprisingly very good! I say surprisingly because I was scared for the first 30 pages that I wasn't going to like it - and then the story took off and my fear was forgotten.
At times I felt like I was reading Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None in the Canadian North - and I mean this in the best possible way!
I feel like Ron Corbett has a good handle for writing from a female perspective - which is pretty darn impressive, not everyone can do it.
The plot twists were unexpected and smart - but I can't say too much without spoiling it.
I look forward to seeing what Mr. Corbett writes next!
This was surprisingly very good! I say surprisingly because I was scared for the first 30 pages that I wasn't going to like it - and then the story took off and my fear was forgotten.
At times I felt like I was reading Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None in the Canadian North - and I mean this in the best possible way!
I feel like Ron Corbett has a good handle for writing from a female perspective - which is pretty darn impressive, not everyone can do it.
The plot twists were unexpected and smart - but I can't say too much without spoiling it.
I look forward to seeing what Mr. Corbett writes next!
September 14, 2017
My full review can be found on my blog here.
You know that feeling when you watch a movie and realize all of the most exciting parts were in the trailer? That's what I felt like after reading Ragged Lake by Ron Corbett. The synopsis promised a "richly atmospheric mystery with sweeping backdrops," and I unfortunately didn't get that from the novel. I was surprised that I didn't enjoy this read because I usually love everything that ECW Press publishes. But this one just wasn't for me.
The first couple of chapters are promising. Corbett establishes a spooky, wintery setting that totally reminded me of Twin Peaks, especially with the murder mystery element. From the first few chapters, you get a true sense of how sequestered this village is and how the looming storm only worsens that feeling of isolation. As I got a sense of the sparse setting and its hard-edged characters, I was also getting Fargo vibes, which heightened my expectations of the book. I was briefly hooked for the first few chapters, but the narrative unfortunately spiraled and didn't really pick back up.
This might just be a case of my taste not aligning with this kind of book. I like reading crime and murder mysteries, but this was too slow paced for me and I didn't find myself rooting for the protagonist in any way. If you like stories with an incremental build where you don't have to get too emotionally invested in the story or its characters, then Ragged Lake might be for you.
You know that feeling when you watch a movie and realize all of the most exciting parts were in the trailer? That's what I felt like after reading Ragged Lake by Ron Corbett. The synopsis promised a "richly atmospheric mystery with sweeping backdrops," and I unfortunately didn't get that from the novel. I was surprised that I didn't enjoy this read because I usually love everything that ECW Press publishes. But this one just wasn't for me.
The first couple of chapters are promising. Corbett establishes a spooky, wintery setting that totally reminded me of Twin Peaks, especially with the murder mystery element. From the first few chapters, you get a true sense of how sequestered this village is and how the looming storm only worsens that feeling of isolation. As I got a sense of the sparse setting and its hard-edged characters, I was also getting Fargo vibes, which heightened my expectations of the book. I was briefly hooked for the first few chapters, but the narrative unfortunately spiraled and didn't really pick back up.
This might just be a case of my taste not aligning with this kind of book. I like reading crime and murder mysteries, but this was too slow paced for me and I didn't find myself rooting for the protagonist in any way. If you like stories with an incremental build where you don't have to get too emotionally invested in the story or its characters, then Ragged Lake might be for you.
September 18, 2017
This was a good story and so descriptive. I hope to read more from this author.
July 29, 2017
This is kind of an updated locked-room mystery. A family of squatters is murdered in their cabin at what is essentially the end of the world during the winter. There are less than a dozen people in the entire town and no one appears to have any motive. There are several red herrings, but the ending is a bit of a surprise. My only complaint is that I am trying to figure out a whodunit without all the clues.
June 1, 2018
While the summary of this book piqued my interest, it turned out not to be the read I was hoping for. I found it to be rather melancholy throughout with a high body count and considerable gory detail. There are a few sequences that do tend to make one realize why so many combat veterans suffer from PTSD.
August 5, 2022
This comes from an author who wrote an excellent biography of a fishing guide's life in Agonquin Park, Ontario - a book I gave 5 stars. I was thoroughly disappointed to read this disturbing fiction named after a Lake in that book. It threads together sadistic events and memories - and very little real mystery. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
December 19, 2017
Too many deaths and misery for me at this time. Nice descriptive of northern landscape and winter living conditions. Beginning good, middle dragged, ending rushed and bloody.
March 29, 2018
Ragged Lake, nominated for an Edgar Award, is set on The Northern Divide. A young tree marker makes a gruesome discovery in an abandoned cabin. Detective Frank Yakabuski a former army man, is sent to investigate. He leads a task force against a biker gang trafficking drugs.
Ragged Lake is snowed in and Frank and his deputies can only arrive there on snowmobiles. It has been freezing this week here, and this book made me feel even colder, so maybe next time, I'll save the Canadian wilderness for the height of summer.
Arriving in this remote and desolate part of the world it becomes clear it this town is rundown, once thriving when it still had a paper mill, now few people are left and Frank suspects them all and locks them up in the local fishing lodge. If you expect an Agatha Christie kind of narrative, where Frank will gather them around and point at the culprit, this is not that kind of book. Or maybe this is Ten little Indians.
And now I hear how that sounds because a large part of the story revolves around a beautiful Cree Indian girl named Lucy. One of the people that died in the cabin.
What I loved about Ragged Lake were the descriptions of the landscape, the language is beautiful, effective and evocative, it made me feel like I was freezing my ass off in Canadian wilderness myself, knowing that IRL I don't want to go to this godforsaken place. Why? Because the narrative is as chilling and harsh as the landscape, people drop like flies, and mercy in this town is a faraway concept.
The thing I liked less was how Ragged Lake was structured.
The other people killed in the cabin are Lucy's husband and their little girl. Lucy had a very interesting life, she was on her own, meeting the worst of the worst, from an early age. We know this because Frank finds her diary, and for large chunks in the book, we read along with him. These would be the flashbacks in a movie. Flashbacks can be jarring in a thriller when you want the story to move forward.
This book is very similar to Jane Harper's The Dry, one of the best thrillers of 2017: an unforgiving landscape, a family killed, a town full of losers, where the past of one of the victims causes everything that comes next. The flashbacks in The Dry where intricately woven through the story. It was easier because the man investigating shared a past with the victims.
Frank does not.
The diary parts are very well written, but I wished it was set up differently. Even if we get to know Lucy through her writing, the story loses momentum, its stakes.
Ragged Lake is quite nihilistic, there's a huge amount of violence, coldly calculated moves, and a methodical way to solve this mystery.
Ragged Lake is snowed in and Frank and his deputies can only arrive there on snowmobiles. It has been freezing this week here, and this book made me feel even colder, so maybe next time, I'll save the Canadian wilderness for the height of summer.
Arriving in this remote and desolate part of the world it becomes clear it this town is rundown, once thriving when it still had a paper mill, now few people are left and Frank suspects them all and locks them up in the local fishing lodge. If you expect an Agatha Christie kind of narrative, where Frank will gather them around and point at the culprit, this is not that kind of book. Or maybe this is Ten little Indians.
And now I hear how that sounds because a large part of the story revolves around a beautiful Cree Indian girl named Lucy. One of the people that died in the cabin.
What I loved about Ragged Lake were the descriptions of the landscape, the language is beautiful, effective and evocative, it made me feel like I was freezing my ass off in Canadian wilderness myself, knowing that IRL I don't want to go to this godforsaken place. Why? Because the narrative is as chilling and harsh as the landscape, people drop like flies, and mercy in this town is a faraway concept.
The thing I liked less was how Ragged Lake was structured.
The other people killed in the cabin are Lucy's husband and their little girl. Lucy had a very interesting life, she was on her own, meeting the worst of the worst, from an early age. We know this because Frank finds her diary, and for large chunks in the book, we read along with him. These would be the flashbacks in a movie. Flashbacks can be jarring in a thriller when you want the story to move forward.
This book is very similar to Jane Harper's The Dry, one of the best thrillers of 2017: an unforgiving landscape, a family killed, a town full of losers, where the past of one of the victims causes everything that comes next. The flashbacks in The Dry where intricately woven through the story. It was easier because the man investigating shared a past with the victims.
Frank does not.
The diary parts are very well written, but I wished it was set up differently. Even if we get to know Lucy through her writing, the story loses momentum, its stakes.
Ragged Lake is quite nihilistic, there's a huge amount of violence, coldly calculated moves, and a methodical way to solve this mystery.
February 4, 2018
Author Ron Corbett, a respected Canadian author, journalist, and broadcaster, has written his first novel, “Scatter Lake, ” in a slightly different voice than most murder mysteries I’ve read. The gore, murder, and mayhem are all here in abundance, but are lightly veiled in an environment that mimics the snowy, cold, and misty backdrop. It’s a clever technique that I find interesting and a bit chilling.
The moist red sprays that accompany most descriptions of a bullet striking a tender human body have vaporous references in Corbett’s book. The pools of gore from ghastly bled-out victims, as well as ghastly cuts, become vague comparisons to dark shadows. The last grotesque convulsions of a fatally shot victim are either minor twitches or not mentioned at all. More than twenty deaths are not so vividly described as to be individually memorable. Corbett handles this muted treatment of violence with skill while still keeping the reader in the game.
A squatter family is found murdered in a cabin in down-at-its-heels Ragged Lake and a senior detective with a couple of inexperienced associates are sent to look into it. The deaths are precursors of more murders, prompting the detective to sequester the few town residents in a run-down fisherman’s lodge, a la Agatha Christie, as he seeks to protect them while sorting it all out. Violent storms and vicious gangsters descend on Ragged Lake making the investigation a nightmare, enhanced by the fact that no official assistance can be sent because of the weather. Apparently villains are more hardy than the cops.
The natural backdrop, intensity of the storms, an almost fanatical investigator, clever flashbacks, and the above-mentioned violent yet restrained action make for an interesting and different story. I enjoyed the book a lot and the author, through an interesting phone conversation that closes the book, signals that more might be coming.
March 1, 2019
Ragged Lake is a remote, former mill town which is now virtually deserted in the winter. There is a survival school and a fishing lodge which serves the locals in the bar. When the Cork Town's police department, located 400 miles south, receives a call from a young man reporting dead bodies in a cabin in an abandoned bush camp, three officers soon find themselves en route to Ragged Lake on snowmobiles. The crime scene is devastating and the suspects are few.
Ron Corbett has exquisitely described the northern setting and the isolation of a community long forgotten by many. The reader is immersed in the wilderness, trapped by the storm and fear of predators that may be circling. Two legged predators with guns.
I loved the first part of the book. Things started to slow down when Detective Frank Yakabuski began reading the journal of one of the victims, Lucy Whiteduck. This was an awkward literary device that was used to tell the back story. Supposedly, Lucy began the journal when she sensed her family was in danger yet the journal was written in the style of a book complete with conversations in quotation marks. It didn't add to the suspense and slowed the pace down considerably.
The ending was convoluted and I was left with unanswered questions. Despite my gripes with the structure, Corbett can write. Ragged Lake is his first novel, he is a journalist and author of a few non-fiction books. This novel is dark and gritty with unexpected violence. It may not be to every reader's taste, but I will definitely check out the second book in this series.
Ron Corbett has exquisitely described the northern setting and the isolation of a community long forgotten by many. The reader is immersed in the wilderness, trapped by the storm and fear of predators that may be circling. Two legged predators with guns.
I loved the first part of the book. Things started to slow down when Detective Frank Yakabuski began reading the journal of one of the victims, Lucy Whiteduck. This was an awkward literary device that was used to tell the back story. Supposedly, Lucy began the journal when she sensed her family was in danger yet the journal was written in the style of a book complete with conversations in quotation marks. It didn't add to the suspense and slowed the pace down considerably.
The ending was convoluted and I was left with unanswered questions. Despite my gripes with the structure, Corbett can write. Ragged Lake is his first novel, he is a journalist and author of a few non-fiction books. This novel is dark and gritty with unexpected violence. It may not be to every reader's taste, but I will definitely check out the second book in this series.
October 5, 2018
A dark, violent novel, Ragged Lake brings a combination of American style hard-boiled detective and police procedure north a non-existant but plausible Canadian setting. The strength of this book are the excellently drawn characters. Rob Corbett fully draws all of his characters, victim and criminals, making them unique and memorable.
Two small complaints though. First, the author chose to set his series in the vaguely northern city of Springfield - but it is clearly a very distorted version of Ottawa. Ottawa is a mild-mannered capital city, whereas Springfield is a lumberjack version of Gotham City. So I found myself completely pulled out of the story when I came across the many obvious Ottawa references because the reality is so at odds with the fiction. It would have been better to use real settings or completely fictional ones, instead of the almost fantastical alternate history. Secondly, while the dragged out melancholy ending is setting the scene for the next book, it really seemed at out of place with the rest of the fast pacing of the book.
Nevertheless, a great read and worthy start to a new mystery series focusing on Detective Yakabuski.
Two small complaints though. First, the author chose to set his series in the vaguely northern city of Springfield - but it is clearly a very distorted version of Ottawa. Ottawa is a mild-mannered capital city, whereas Springfield is a lumberjack version of Gotham City. So I found myself completely pulled out of the story when I came across the many obvious Ottawa references because the reality is so at odds with the fiction. It would have been better to use real settings or completely fictional ones, instead of the almost fantastical alternate history. Secondly, while the dragged out melancholy ending is setting the scene for the next book, it really seemed at out of place with the rest of the fast pacing of the book.
Nevertheless, a great read and worthy start to a new mystery series focusing on Detective Yakabuski.
January 9, 2019
Murder mystery taking place in Northern Ontario, possibly bordering with/into northern Manitoba, & vividly evoking the isolation of a now defunct pulp mill camp town & associated essentially abandoned Cree worker village, all in the middle of a harsh winter.
A tree marker finds two people slaughtered within a makeshift cabin outside the old mill town. The only really open facility left in the town is an old fishing resort, serviced by a rail line. A survival school opened a few years ago in one of the abandoned camp bunkhouse. So a few people do live in the area. Detective Yakabuski is sent up by rail from the nearest detachment, along with two other policemen, to investigate.
There is considerable reference to the Northern Divide, which I haven't really had much occasion the consciously think about since school, and it is virtually a character within the story.
This is a new series, & I will look forward to the next book.
A tree marker finds two people slaughtered within a makeshift cabin outside the old mill town. The only really open facility left in the town is an old fishing resort, serviced by a rail line. A survival school opened a few years ago in one of the abandoned camp bunkhouse. So a few people do live in the area. Detective Yakabuski is sent up by rail from the nearest detachment, along with two other policemen, to investigate.
There is considerable reference to the Northern Divide, which I haven't really had much occasion the consciously think about since school, and it is virtually a character within the story.
This is a new series, & I will look forward to the next book.
June 21, 2021
3.5/5. Ragged Lake wasn’t what I expected. I’m familiar with Ron Corbett through his book about guiding in Algonquin Park. I knew I was going to read a murder mystery of some kind, set in North Ontario. What starts as a locked-door mystery with the suspects snowed in at an Inn during a raging storm turns into a pitched battle with bikers, with diary flashbacks from a murdered Indigenous woman that provide depth and context to the story. I won’t give away any more of the plot but Corbett mixes genre elements in a distinctly North Ontario setting. I’m not sure the plot’s propulsion fit the quieter introspection of the diary segments, and some of the secondary characters could have been more fleshed out, but it’s an intriguing start to the series and I’ll give the next one a try.
June 10, 2025
I found I wanted to finish this book quickly. A bit boring, even at the exciting shoot out.
Main detective goes up a remote cabin where a tree-marker found a couple and a small child killed in a cabin. Police go up and it is about a rich guy that has a meth lab. It was blown up and then the bikers go find Yak, the detective. He kills everyone in the lodge and then Yak has to use his people at this situation to kill the crazy guy. There is a mill that was closed. The native Indian girl and her family was killed by the old mill owner who turns out to be the one that was raping this girl. He saw her at a shop and needed to kill her before she said anything.
Don't read any more of these books. I found another of his and I will put it in the book box.
Main detective goes up a remote cabin where a tree-marker found a couple and a small child killed in a cabin. Police go up and it is about a rich guy that has a meth lab. It was blown up and then the bikers go find Yak, the detective. He kills everyone in the lodge and then Yak has to use his people at this situation to kill the crazy guy. There is a mill that was closed. The native Indian girl and her family was killed by the old mill owner who turns out to be the one that was raping this girl. He saw her at a shop and needed to kill her before she said anything.
Don't read any more of these books. I found another of his and I will put it in the book box.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2025
Graham Rowat does a great job narrating this one for Audible, where we are introduced to the Det. Frank Yakabuski trilogy: Ragged Lake in the wilds of Northern Ontario is the scene of a grisly triple-homicide of squatters, and “YAK” is sent with two rookies to investigate. What unfolds is a blizzard-trapped murder mystery that involves Bosnian war crimes, violent biker gangs, generational trauma and a whole lot of gun violence. The climax is explosive and the denouement makes you definitely want to read part two…but the actual solving of the crime irked me a little. Not to spoil anything (as the actual solution is poignant), it’s just how YAK gets to it that annoyed me.
Lots of triggers in this one: including a lot of sexual assault and child endangerment. Dark but very entertaining.
Lots of triggers in this one: including a lot of sexual assault and child endangerment. Dark but very entertaining.
July 26, 2024
about a tree maker foung body strange cabin on ragged lake small town with mill paper mill crossed down Lucy was one was killed with her family she witness a murder and running for her life kid and husband and frank yakabuski with other was in a shoot out over lab wanted get rid all the town people know about the drug lab was destroyed the lab at the end one of the head guys they do not know who he is frank called but can not trace the call and tree maker and the guy who worked at the town they having a babby and dective dad is in the hospital over christmas the end, there more going on most read .
December 7, 2018
What a story. I could not put it down...reading until 4 in the morning. It is a fascinating, provocative tale of crime lords, survival, love and loss. It is fast and violent. The main characters are compelling and sympathetic in their vulnerability and courage. The underworld is greedy, repulsive, scary. Corbett is genius at creating an atmosphere bleak, cold and forbidding. He has related the hopelessness of the abandoned mills and villages of the poor and the Cree. And he has established a lasting hero with Yakabuski. I look forward to reading more of this series.
May 7, 2019
I liked it enough to want to read the next one -- but I can't call it brilliant. But I would call it "good" and worth reading. A mystery / thriller set in fictional northern Canada (Ontario/Manitoba) is what intrigued me in the first place. The barren and tough landscape makes a perfect place for the story. I think there is potential in the Frank Yakabuski character ... tough, smart and not afraid to take chances. A bit of a good Canadian bad ass ... (he most certainly would be played by Liam Neeson if there is ever a movie).
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