Coming in 2027:
The Moon Keeps Score
A cold case pulls Sheriff Red Hammergren into the murky depths of Hammer Lake, where money, violence, and forty years of lies collide.
When a fisherman finds a rusted Camaro in Hammer Lake, Sheriff Red Hammergren links it to Rence Thomas—an Iowa man who vanished without a trace four decades ago. Before Red can search for his remains, his adult twins arrive in rural Minnesota demanding answers about their father's fate.
Red's investigation uncovers a reclusive woman with a scarred face who has ties to the old disappearance—and to money now missing from the town treasury. But the more Red digs, the more she realizes everyone connected to this case is hiding something. When one of the twins is found dead on the lakeshore days after a public confrontation, the connection between past and present becomes lethally clear.
The Moon Keeps Score releases in March 2027.
The Frost Bites Deep
Elliot Anderson froze to death on the land he came to develop. In Lykkins Lake, nobody's grieving.
Sheriff Red Hammergren knows what a Minnesota winter does to a body. Elliot Anderson died on the burned-out Dayton property, where the Birchwood Project's proposed data center has turned neighbor against neighbor. Red needs to know why the project's site manager was there alone at night. The cold offers an easy explanation for his death—until the autopsy calls everything into question.
A break-in at a retired photographer's studio seems unrelated. Someone has left slurs on the walls and stolen a fistful of prints from forty years of small-town history.
As the two cases converge, Red must question powerful people she's known her whole life—and decide whose answers she can still trust. And with money and reputations at stake, too many of her neighbors are ready to accept whichever explanation costs them least.
Perfect for fans of Jess Lourey and William Kent Krueger, Linda Norlander's sixth Sheriff Red Hammergren novel returns to small-town Minnesota, where a land deal divides a community and a dead man's secret surfaces on the coroner's table.
The Frost Bites Deep releases in September 2027.
2026 Releases
Chilling cold cases resurface as Sheriff Red Hammergren hunts for a missing teen, exposing the dark underbelly of a storm-bound Minnesota town.
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“Death of a Starling, the second novel in Linda Norlander’s delightful A Cabin by the Lake mystery series, offers something compelling for every reader. If you’re partial to sense of place, Starling delivers a wonderful evocation of Minnesota’s great Northwoods. Interesting characters, some quirky, some very dark, jump from the pages of every chapter. There’s a bit of romance, a lot of suspense, some fine inclusion of elements of the Ojibwe culture, and a wonderfully serpentine plot that’s sure to keep you guessing to the end. I can’t think of a better read at a summer cabin or in front of roaring winter fire.”
— William Kent Krueger, author of the New York Times bestseller, This Tender Land
Death of an Editor
Death of a Starling
Death of a Snow Ghost
Death of a Fox
Death of a Dream Catcher
The Death of Goldie's Mistress: A Liza and Mrs. Wilkens Mystery Book 1
The Secret of Ravens Valley: A Liza and Mrs. Wilkens Mystery Book 2
And the Lake Will Take Them (Sheriff Red Mysteries Book 1)
The Pines Were Watching (Sheriff Red Mysteries Book 2)
What the Fields Saw (Sheriff Red Mysteries Book 3)
Only The River Knows (Sheriff Red Mysteries Book 4)
The Moon Keeps Score (Sheriff Red Mysteries Book 5)
