Don’t you love it when a friend recommends a book and it turns out he was right? That’s how I got turned on to William Kent Krueger’s new book, Vermilion Drift. A friend knew I would love a good mystery and said, “Read this.” WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER podcast excerpt: "There are people who read a particular series because they know what to expect. They like that comfort level. That interests me not at all. What I have always tried to offer the reader is a new wine each time. It's all made from grapes, but the subtleties, the nuances, change from book to book to book. The stories and themes I deal with change." I won’t lie—it took me a little while to cotton to the gentle pacing and subtleties of Krueger’s book. There is little Wham! Bam! action, although there is some menacing behavior. So I read it a little at a time until I was halfway through. All at once I just sort of got it, if you know what I mean, and I couldn’t put it down until I got to the end. (Okay, I did pause long enough to invite the author to be a guest on Mr. Media®.) When I was done, I learned this is actually the 10th in a series of mysteries featuring Krueger’s quiet, thoughtful hero, Cork O’Connor. That surprised me only in that I didn’t feel like I was jumping on a moving train when I started the book. And now I want to go back and start the series from the beginning. William Kent Krueger • • • • • •