Vidar Sundstøl visited the Cross River Heritage Center in Schroeder last spring and read from The Ravens, the newest and last book in his trilogy set in northern Minnesota. The murder mystery covers the North Shore from Two Harbors to Grand Portage and places in between.
The third and final book in Vidar Sundstøl’s North Shore murder mystery series ends with a shocking conclusion as the often troubled and tormented U.S. Forest Service ranger Lance Hansen finally figures out who killed the Norwegian tourist he found bludgeoned to death near Father Baraga Cross in Schroeder.
In Sundstøl’s first two books, Land of Dreams and Only the Dead, the Norwegian author introduced characters and set up plot twists that slowly get unwound in The Ravens.
In the latest book, Lance Hansen sets out to determine whether or not his brother Andy is the killer or whether Lenny Driver, an Ojibwe who was arrested for the crime, will take the fall for someone. But who would that be?
Intertwined in all of this Lance is reunited with a former love, re-introduced to and mentors his niece, and learns to dream again after an eightyear hiatus with help from his former father-in-law Willy Dupree, an Ojibwe trained in the art of unraveling dreams.
Lance chases leads from Grand Portage to Minneapolis and back again. Along the way Sundstøl captures the beauty and moods of the lake, forests, hills and the four seasons, interweaving them with Norse mythology and modern mysticism.
Will Lance Hansen appear in a fourth book?
“No,” said Sundstøl to a large crowd that turned out to hear him speak at the Cross River Heritage Center last spring. “This was the picture that I could paint. He is not a recurring hero. I’m happy with him and the way the books turned out.”
Sundstøl spent two years gathering information for the trilogy while living in on the North Shore while his wife worked as a U.S. Forest Service biologist at the Tofte Ranger Station.
He said he learned a lot about Ojibwe history and culture and read William Raff ’s Pioneers in the Wilderness. “I would also go and buy books with local history from the Trading Post in Grand Marais. Maybe they will give me free books for mentioning that.”
He and his wife drove the shore, visiting businesses and gathering information, looking for characters or places for scenes in the book. Lance Hansen in fact is the mythical grandson of Isak Hansen.
While Willy Dupree is Ojibwe, much of his character was developed from Sundstøl’s grandfather.
“My mother’s family is steeped in forest culture. My grandfather loved to tell me stories. He told me stories about hunting, fishing, work-related incidents and ghost stories. I lived one mile away and would have to walk home in the pitch black, crossing a small bridge with water under it, thinking about those ghost stories. I was scared to death. I based Willy Dupree on him. I think my grandfather would have been happy to be portrayed as a wise old Indian.”
Sundstøl wrote the trilogy in Norwegian from 2006 to 2011. Tiina Nunnally, who has translated 60 books from the Nordic language, translated the books into English. When asked if Sundstøl thought Nunnally had done a good job, Sundstøl replied, “I think the translations are better than my original books.”
Why was Lance unable to dream? Sundstøl was asked.
“I had to give him a handicap and this was it. He couldn’t dream. It’s a terrible handicap. But when he could dream I gave him a big whopper of a dream. The largest dream on Norwegian record. He doesn’t dream about the locals, not girls, instead he dreams about old history, the voyageurs. In the realm of the dead, no one dies.”
The books, said Sundstøl, chronicle his North Shore experience, “I have spent years traveling and talking about you people. I think I have been doing a good job portraying you. I think the chamber of commerce should be paying me,” he joked.
Sundstøl’s books can be picked up locally at several locations or ordered online through the University of Minnesota Press.
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