Northwoods

August 1, 2023

Drinking hard, bereft of career and marriage, and still haunted by his time in Afghanistan, Eli North holds a job in the sheriff's office of his small Wisconsin town only because his mother is sheriff. Then a teenage boy is found dead, and a young FBI agent joins Eli and his mother in a hunt that leads to a wealthy pharmaceutical salesman's enclave as the opioid crisis crashes like heavy waves around them. A debut from Wisconsin-based nurse practitioner Pease. Prepub Alert.

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November 1, 2023
A bucolic resort town on a lake in northern Wisconsin is the setting for a grim tale of drug addiction and murder. Eli North, a former elite investigator with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service suffering from PTSD after a stint in Afghanistan that left him wounded, addicted to alcohol, and plagued by delusions and thoughts of suicide, is newly separated from his wife and barely getting by as a sheriff's deputy under the supervision of his mother, Marge, who has been sheriff in the town of Shaky Lake for decades. When he's called to investigate a noise disturbance at an empty cabin, discovering the body of an adolescent boy and learning that a teenage girl is also missing, he rallies enough to investigate with the aid of FBI agent Alyssa Mason. Eli, Marge, and Alyssa discover a complex plot involving a pricey local drug rehab center, a resort with financial problems, and a prescription drug company and its representatives. In her debut novel, Pease brings the community to vivid life, from the bar where the locals drink cheap beer to the palatial homes of the summer people from Chicago. Nearly everyone in this world has deep problems that they attempt to alleviate with one substance or another, from Marge's relatively benign attempts to deal with migraines to the debilitating drug addiction of the mother of the murdered boy. The bonds, for better or worse, between mothers and their children are crucial to the novel, and Pease illuminates their intricacies with a sharp eye. Eli, perpetually in danger of dropping off the edge of his life, is a particularly compelling character, but the others are also well developed and compassionately observed. While the author sometimes juggles more plot elements than the novel can comfortably handle, with the result that some storylines are inexplicably dropped, the depth of the setting and characters make for a rich reading experience. A powerful depiction of the repercussions of substance abuse in the rural Midwest.

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Starred review from November 6, 2023
Nurse practitioner Pease’s outstanding debut centers on Eli North, a military veteran and former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigator whose life was severely disrupted by his tour of duty in Afghanistan. North’s physical and psychic wounds were compounded by the elimination of his Fish and Wildlife job and the dissolution of his marriage when he returned to the U.S., which drove him to heavy drinking. Before things got too bleak, North’s mother, Marge, the sheriff of Sherman County, Wis., pulled North back from the brink and hired him as her deputy. When North responds to a noise complaint from a family staying in a lakeside cabin, he finds the body of young Ben Sharpe in a fishing boat tied to the dock. The mystery of the boy’s death is complicated by Marge’s cover-up of Ben’s mother’s drug use during the murder investigation and the subsequent disappearance of one of his friends, which leads to the FBI’s involvement. North hopes that solving the case will help restore his self-esteem and confidence, but he faces a thicket of drug deals and small town secrets that threaten to take him down before he gets to the truth. Pease’s sharp dialogue and well-rounded characters enrich the core mystery with an authentic representation of the everyday struggles of small-town Americans. Admirers of Eli Cranor will eagerly await more from this gifted writer.

January 1, 2024
Set in a Midwestern resort town caught up in the opioid epidemic, Pease's propulsive debut follows a troubled cop as he investigates the murder of a teenage boy. Eli North's life is spiraling out of control. His untreated PTSD from a stint in Afghanistan has led to a drinking problem and the disintegration of his marriage. Once a talented investigator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Eli struggles to perform his job for the underfunded police department run by his indefatigable mother, Sheriff Maude North. When a boy is found dead of an overdose and the girl he was last seen with goes missing, the Norths push themselves to the limit to find answers. At the same time, a pharmaceutical salesman discovers the company he works for is hiding a dark secret about their miracle drug. Pease expertly builds tension as the book progresses, weaving together multiple perspectives to construct a complex mystery. Her gripping and atmospheric novel will keep readers invested until the last page.

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