Cattale’s Books and Gifts welcomes Minnesota authors Candace Simar and Jeanne Cooney – Pine and Lakes Echo Journal

BRAINERD – Meet Minnesota authors Candace Simar and Jeanne Cooney from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, July 6, at Cattale’s Book and Gifts in downtown Brainerd.

Simar will be signing copies of her latest book, Sister Lumberjack (North Star Press), the fifth book in the award-winning Abercrombie Trail Series. The book continues the story of widow Solveig Rognaldson. Nels Jensen is gripped by bottle fever. Cheated out of his summer wages, he heads to the logging camps of northern Minnesota, only to find he’s blacklisted by legitimate companies. He’s neither a thief nor a liar, but he can’t prove his innocence. Widow Solveig Rognaldson is left alone with heartache and a mortgage. Without a well-paying job, she will lose her Foxhome farm. Her son marries and moves away. Although she feels too old, she gathers her courage and dares to go her own way. She must save the farm alone. She has no one else. Trouble follows Sister Magdalena, a cheerful nun who struggles with rules. As a dog, she is sent out to sell hospital tickets to loggers working in the forests of Minnesota. It is dangerous work and those with a license receive free medical care if they are injured. She travels alone to remote logging camps in the dead of winter, sometimes on snowshoes. The loggers call her Sister Lumberjack. The lives of these three intersect in Starkweather Timber, a chaotic logging camp where everything goes wrong. Their unique friendship gives their lives unexpected twists.

Simar likes to imagine how things might have been. She combines her love of history with her Scandinavian heritage in historical novels that explore the early days of Minnesota and North Dakota. “I write historical novels to provide painless history lessons about the fascinating and unique history of our region.”

Cooney will be signing copies of her new book, “It’s Murder, You Betcha: Quirky Murder Mystery with Recipes.” Her previously published “It’s Murder, Dontcha Know” and her Hot Dish Heaven mysteries are set in northwest Minnesota’s Red River Valley, home to a number of colorful Scandinavian Lutheran farmers.

In addition to a tongue-in-cheek mystery, each book offers tried-and-true recipes for casseroles, jello and bars. The books can be read as a series or stand alone. Cooney and her books, published by North Star Press, have been featured at the Minnesota State Fair and Hostfest, the largest Scandinavian festival in North America. The books have also been featured on Twin Cities television and radio, as well as in the Minneapolis StarTribune, the Fargo Forum and other Midwestern newspapers.

Minnesota Public Radio has named Cooney one of the few authors to read if you’re interested in crime fiction set in Minnesota. Midwest Book Review said of A Potluck of Murder and Recipes, “It’s another great and original crime novel from the pen of Jeanne Cooney and once again documents her complete mastery of the genre.” And Kirkus Review called It’s Murder, You Betcha a “suspenseful and cozy detective series” with “refreshingly funny” characters.

When Cooney, who is represented by the Blue Cottage agency, was asked if she planned to continue writing about the Red River Valley, she said, “Sure. The people there are great and the food is pretty damn good too. So I can’t imagine doing anything else, you know.”

Make way, Stephanie Plum, Betty Crocker and the residents of Lake Wobegon. Retired farmer Doris Day Anderson Connor and her quirky friends and relatives solve crimes in the Scandinavian Lutheran farming community of Hallock in northwest Minnesota.

In this book, the second installment in the It’s Murder series, Doris and her sister Grace KellyAnderson, the owner of the local cafe, go ice fishing with ninety-year-old Rose O’Brien. However, the day ends without their efforts yielding anything except a dead body. With Rose distraught over the crime, Doris feels compelled to investigate to further the murder investigation, much to the chagrin of the sheriff, an old friend, and a current mystery. While at the cafe, at a funeral, and at a gender reveal party during a snowstorm, she finds answers but also learns secrets and lies that make her question if she really knows the residents of her hometown. After all, at least one of them is a murderer. The first book in the series is called “It’s Murder, Dontcha Know.”