Author's First Novel Undiscovered Country: Son Solves Father's Murder in Northern Minnesota

The son was certain that his father would not shoot himself while they were deer hunting together, leaving him to discover the body. No, that did not seem like something his dad would do.

Jesse Matson sets out to resolve the unfinished business when his father's death is ruled a suicide. Harold Matson was a pillar of the community, the town mayor and owner of a Viking-themed restaurant called the Valhalla. But his marriage to Genevieve was riddled with family secrets that come out of the closet after his death to haunt Jesse. Inspired by reading Shakespeare's Hamlet in his high-school English class, Jesse hopes to flush out his father's murderer.

Can he do it before the murderer kills again? Not bloody likely, is it? No trio of witches serve as chorus, but his father's ghost does show up several times to urge his son forward in the investigation.

Jesse's English teacher, Mr. Bascom, views Hamlet as a man caught between pagan and Christian ideals. On the one hand he wants to avenge his father's death but also wants to be a good Christian and forgive others. Similarly, Jesse stays his hand at one point when he has a clear chance to shoot the murderer, hoping to retain the love of his idealistic and very Catholic girlfriend, Christine.

The prose is spare and moody, the setting pristine with woods, snow, and small-town life. The book starts out ten years after the murder, when he finally records the truth of what happened for the benefit of a younger brother.

Aren't Nordic types supposed to be stoic and just suck it up? Should family secrets stay buried? Do two wrongs make a right? There is plenty of material for class discussions and barstool philosophy. Preferably over a nice cold Leinenkugel or a fish fry.

The author teaches writing at Minnesota State University, Moorhead. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. This is his first novel.

Undiscovered Country, by Lin Enger, published by Little Brown and Company, July 2008, 308 pages. ISBN 978031600694. $23.99.