Worth the Read discussion

In May, William Kent Krueger won the Edgar Award for best novel for his 2013 book Ordinary Grace, a murder mystery set in 1960s Minnesota. It’s also a coming-of-age story, told through the eyes of 13-year-old Frank Drum, that is compelling and authentic. It transports you back into the time of root beer floats and Capture the Flag. Well-written and poignant, Ordinary Grace is the October pick for Worth the Read. It will keep you up past your bedtime reading about family life, death, guilt, mercy and redemption.

Ashley called it: I stayed up way past my bedtime to keep reading this beautifully written novel. Mystery, not just the whodunnit variety, pervades the story line. And yet with young Frank as the narrator, the perspective remains refreshingly down-to-earth. Each of its characters is compelling, but especially those in Frank's family. What binds them, amid numerous tragedies in the summer of 1961, is put to the test and what this novel ultimately reveals. But the experience of reading Ordinary Grace isn't gushy or abstract. Scene by scene, you're pulled into the lives and realities of a small Minnesota town 50+ years ago. So worth the read.