Welcome to Local Lit, our posts highlighting recent additions to our inventory from local authors or publishers. This week, we have three thrilling mysteries by local authors, all set in Minnesota.

Nerve Damage: A debut “medical thriller” by Twin Cities ER doctor Tom Combs, this is a new twist on local mystery, highlighting the state’s sophisticated and robust medical industry.

ER physician and medical researcher Drake Cody has created an experimental drug that may help the paralyzed walk. But a diabolical predator has learned of the priceless research and will stop at nothing–including murder–to obtain it. When Drake’s helicopter rescue flight touches down poolside at a Lake Minnetonka estate, he finds his attorney dead of a suspicious drowning. Police investigate and discover evidence of her hidden life of sexual obsession and criminal business dealings. Within hours, one of Drake’s research colleagues is shot and arrives at the ER near death. Drake battles to save his dying friend while gripped by fear that a devastating secret from his past has resurfaced. The stakes ratchet ever-higher as Drake, his wife Rachelle and their two children are swept into an international firestorm of greed and violence.

 

Pike’s Plaque: Something of a sleeper hit here at Magers and Quinn, Minneapolis writer Stephen J. McInerny’s novel hit our bestseller shelf in its first week at the store.

Karl Ketterman, fresh out of college, is hired as manager of the Zebulon Pike Golf Course, an aging, slightly decrepit muni in a small Midwestern city. Things, however, are not what they seem, as Karl quickly discovers. Soon he’s up to his eyeballs in political intrigue, romance, and the ZPGC’s murky history. A ruthless developer, an eccentric greenskeeper, a mysterious interloper, a forgotten grave, and an unforgettable collection of oddballs and eccentrics add to the mystery, and keep you guessing what’s going to happen next.

 
A Second Helping of Murder and Recipes: The sequel to Jeanne Cooney’s Hot Dish Heaven, which was a very popular local title here last holiday season.

Reporter Emerald Malloy returns to Minnesota’s Red River Valley to gather more recipes for an encore feature her paper plans to run on rural cooking. This time around, Margie Johnson, the owner of Hot Dish Heaven, the local café, surprises her with unusual recipes, including Sauerkraut Hot Dish. While intrigued by Margie’s efforts to expand her “culinary horizons,” Emerald has no interest in looking into the murder of a farmhand whose body is found at a local sugar beet piler. Instead, her plans focus on getting more intimately acquainted with Randy Ryden, the deputy she met when last in town. Those plans change, however, when someone close to Margie is arrested for the crime, and Emerald and friends must investigate their way through a blizzard, a fish fry, and a whole lot more to discover the real killer.

 

To find these mysteries with a Minnesota twist, inquire in the store, or check them out online by clicking on the titles above.