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That said, I hadn’t read it so this book had a lot to live up to, and I’m thrilled to say it did and then some. So what’s all the fuss about?
A series of deaths in a small Minnesota town are at the center of this literary mystery, but it is the characters that are at the heart of this novel, and the setting, really another character, is just the icing on the cake.
Our protagonist is 13 year old Frank Drum, who forty years later is telling us about his last summer in 1961 New Breman, Minnesota. The book opens with a friend of Frank’s found dead, and quickly other deaths occur.
Frank’s father is a minister, attending to the flocks of three small area churches. His mother struggles with being a pastor’s wife, and finds solace in music and leading the church choir. His eldest sister Ariel is a brilliant musician with a slight deformity from a harelip surgery who is slated to go to Julliard in the fall. Jake is Frank’s younger brother who suffers from stuttering, and is often tortured as children are about his affliction.
This family deals with death, with God and faith, with community and the long term repercussions of war in this beautifully written, soul searing novel. If I had to sum it up in one word it would be – unforgettable. Don’t miss it.
12/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
ORDINARY GRACE by William Kent Kruger. Atria Books; Reprint edition (March 4, 2014). ISBN 978-1451645859. 336p.
Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™ 
I read this back when it first came out. William Kent Krueger may have outdone himself with ORDINARY GRACE. I’ve read a few other popular novels by this author,and ORDINARY GRACE is by far the best.
I was lucky enough to win the book earlier and was very impressed. I felt as though he lived my childhood (without the dead bodies, of course!). Very engrossing book.