Thursday, January 23, 2020

Loon Lake

Loon Lake is a fictitious community in northern Wisconsin.  That is the area of the county where Paul Bunyan lived. In case you don't know Paul, you can look here: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=paul+bunyan  That means that there is plenty of forest, some bears, some eagles, many lakes and cold winters.  People from Chicago and Milwaukee retreat to the "Northwoods" in summer to escape the heat and in winter to hunt deer and wild turkey.  It is an area of small towns of 10 to 20 thousand and smaller.


Lewellyn Ferris is the chief of police of Loon Lake and Paul Osborne is a retired dentist.  Paul is a widower and has two grown daughters. Paul is attracted to Lew and he dines with her often.  Paul's friend and neighbor, Ray Pradt, is an outdoorsman, fishing guide and general guy.  


The Loon Lake stories are written by Victoria Houston and they include "Dead" in the titles, as in "Dead Loudmouth" and "Dead Hot Mama".  They are available for Kindle at a low price and are probably also in your local library. Apps like OverDrive and Libby allow the borrowing of an ebook from a nearby library without leaving your chair. I realize leaving one's chair is a good idea, though, and should be carried out a couple of times a day.


There are other mentions of Houston in these blog posts but she scored again.  We were searching for a book that held our interest and was a good one for reading aloud.  We tried and dropped several before going back to Houston. Admittedly, we might be a bit biased since we are on the edge of the Northwoods, we look out any window and see the scenery that one sees in Northwood resorts.  After trying and giving up on several other books, we decided to give another Houston book a try. With all the lakes and streams in northern Wisconsin, fishing is a big deal. All the Houston books have a background of fishing and both Chief Ferris and her buddy, Dr. Osbourne, love fishing and often fish together.


Houston puts a good, comfortable story together and we quickly settled in.  We liked Dead Hot Mama and zipped through it, but now we are out in the cold, on the hunt again.

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