by Dennis Dalman
Two St. Joseph writers, Jessie Chandler and Susan Sink, gave public readings from their novels at the second annual “LitFest” June 22 right outside of the Minnesota Street Market on St. Joseph’s main street.
“LitFest” is short for “Literature Festival.” About four dozen people attended the reading.
The theme of the LitFest was “Unsolved: On the Mysterious Wisdom of Not Knowing Who, What, Where, When or How.” Not surprising since Sink and Chandler have both written rather dark “who-done-it” novels involving crimes.
‘Officer Down’
Sink, a long-time award-winning poet, decided to try her hand at a novel in 2013, about a year after a Cold Spring officer, Thomas Decker, was murdered in the alley behind Winners Bar in Cold Spring on Nov. 29, 2012. At the time, Sink was living in Cold Spring for a couple of years before moving to an 80-acre spread of land in St. Joseph.
The crime in Cold Spring kept haunting Sink because officer Decker was killed in a shotgun ambush after which his part-time police partner left the scene. They had been called to check on a man who lived above Winners bar and whose family was concerned was having suicidal thoughts.
“The story stuck with me,” Sink wrote, “as a way to express concepts of heroism and cowardice in a small-town setting.
It took Sink nearly 10 years to write the novel, which is entitled “Officer Down.” During that long time, she took her tale through many revisions and was often distracted by, as she put it, going down numerous “rabbit holes” of online research. She also did extensive background research at the St. Joseph Police Department, learning about the ins-and-outs of small-town policing, officer training and police interactions with local people.
“Officer Down” is a fiction book about the killing and its aftermath. Along with the tragedy, the novel explores in loving detail the landscape, culture and people of central Minnesota. There is also a love story that begins to bloom as the novel progresses.
Sink earned a master’s degree at Sarah Lawrence College and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford University (California). She published two collections of poetry “The Way of All the Earth” and “H is for Harry,” as well as a book of short stories entitled “Habits,” and a series of books called “The Art of the Saint John’s Bible.” She has been a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute in 2005/2006 and is still happily involved with it.
“Officer Down” can be purchased at susansinkblog.com/books.
‘Quest for Redemption’
The action in Jessie Chandler’s novel (“Quest for Redemption,” published in 2020) is sparked by the theft of an ancient document. The police-officer protagonist of the book descends into tragedy, as she comes to recognize aspects of herself – a realization that causes a change in action.
Chandler is herself a former police officer. She said the emotional crises in “Quest for Redemption” echo similar crises she had when struggling during one dark and difficult period.
Before moving to St. Joseph, Chandler lived in Minneapolis and was well known for a series of books she wrote collectively known as the Shay O’Hanlon Caper Series – often-humorous crime-detective novels. “Quest for Redemption” is a departure for Chandler because it is a much more psychologically dark novel than her previous books.
The following is a plot summary from Amazon.com, through which the book can be ordered: “Placed on a medical leave of absence from her job as a special agent in the National Protection and Investigation Unit, Mikayla Flynn is a woman on the edge – guilt-ridden, depressed, battling war wounds and personal demons. The world and relationships as she knew them no longer exist. Now, the streets of New York, the bottle and anonymous sex have become her solace.”
Flynn becomes aware through her art-world cronies of the planned theft of a valuable historical document. She agrees to take on the heist of the document by herself. She then sees again her estranged best friend, a mysterious thief and the ex-love of her life.
Chandler can be seen and heard reading a vivid scene from “Quest of Redemption” on YouTube at youtube.com/watch?v=OOzgEWcEsG8.
Chandler earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from St. Cloud State University. She met her long-time partner, Betty Chandler, more than 20 years ago and they were finally able to marry – in Iowa – in 2010. For years, Chandler, while writing her novels, worked in management at two Twin Cities book stores, Borders Books and True Colors Books. She serves on the board of Mystery Writers of America.
She has garnered widespread praise and multiple awards for her novels.
Susan Sink
Jessie Chandler
