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Red Sky is one of the Sean Sean PI novels from Carl Brookins, with the Minneapolis investigator taking a missing-person case that quickly drifts up into the lake country and into a charter-fishing operation whose books do not quite add up. The geography is the book's pleasure. Brookins knows the Minnesota lake-country routes by heart.
The case opens out to involve the kind of slow accumulated local corruption that the regional form often documents. Sean's narration is dry and weathered in a way that earns its keep. The supporting cast (the fishing guides, the bait shop owner, the county deputy) all have texture.
Three stars. A pleasant entry in a small underread series. Recommended to readers who like their PI fiction set in particular real geographies.
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