Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Noir hero on the Northern Divide, Ron Corbett's Frank Yakabuski


HALLIE EPHRON: There are few moments in a crime fiction writer's career that can beat having your debut novel nominated for an Edgar Award. When I met Ron Corbett at the Edgar Awards banquet, he was still pinching himself. The book was his debut novel, Ragged Lake, a series novel that introduced Frank Yakabuski based on the Northern Divide, in Canada.

Turned out, the accolade was not a one-off. The sequel, Cape Diamond, received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.
Kirkus Reviews says Corbett's writing has “ingredients rarely combined – starkly etched natural setting, a gung-ho cop, soulful flashbacks, violent climax – expertly blended and brought to a full roiling boil.”

The third series novel, Mission Road, is being published today. Welcome (back!) to Jungle Red Writers, Ron! Catch us up on how the series is doing.


RON CORBETT: It’s doing well, I would say. Reviews have been great for the first two books. We’ll wait and see for the third. People seem to enjoy the setting of the series, and the characters. They enjoy Frank.

HALLIE: Yes, tell us a little about your protagonist, Frank Yakabuski?

RON: Frank is a police detective on the Northern Divide,
which is a real geographic place, but I’ve fictionalized it for the series. There’s no town called Springfield. There’s no criminal gang called the “Shiners.” There used to be a gang like that. They were right out of Gangs of New York, and pretty much ran the city I live in, Ottawa, for a couple years in the 1830s

Frank was in the military for ten years before becoming a cop, and he has a lot of skills. He’s a competent man. He’s also a reflective man. He is patterned, in about every important way, on fishing guides and lumbermen I have met up North. Those men don’t talk much. They think through most problems. They rarely make mistakes.
 

Family always seems important to the men like that. I’m not sure why, but it almost always is. It seems to get more important the further North you go as well. Maybe the tougher it gets to survive, the more important family becomes to you. I don’t know. But Frank is close to his father, and his sister, and they have important roles to play in the series.

HALLIE: Without giving too much awayl how has the series progressed since Ragged Lake?

RON: Readers are much more familiar with the area now, have spent some time traveling around this fictionalized Northern Divide I am trying to create. There’s a lot of movement in the first two books--extended road trips and walks through the bush. Not all that end well.

HALLIE: And your books are pretty far from the 'cozy' end of the spectrum, wouldn't you say?

RON: Yes they are. And I think it’s important that they stay that way. I think a “cozy” mystery with a far North setting would be an odd mix. The far north is suited for Noir. I have heard the Yakabuski series called “country noir,” and that doesn’t bother me.

HALLIE: We've talked a lot in the last few months about the refuge we take in lighter fare. But I think a lot of us can also escape into a well-drawn, hardboiled story with a tough resilient main character who marches to his own drummer. And the setting of this one sounds sublime. (Would love to hear more about what those titles evoke: from Ragged Lake to Mission Road.)

Which makes me think of books, darker tales in which  setting is so key, like our own Julia Spencer-Fleming's Adirondacks and William Kent Krueger's north woods of Wyoming and C. J. Box's  rugged Montana. Where the dark and challenging nature of the landscape sets the tone for the tale.

What books have drawn you in with their dark, rugged settings?

49 comments:

  1. Happy Book Birthday, Ron! Could you tell us a bit about Frank’s newest adventure?

    Dark, rugged settings? Aside from those you’ve mentioned, Hallie, there’s Dana Stabenow’s Kate Shugak stories . . . Ward Larsen’s “Cutting Edge” . . . .

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    1. Hi Joan,
      I missed your post from earlier today. Mission Road, the book being published today, is a continuation of the story that started in Cape Diamond, the sequel to Ragged Lake. Coles Notes version is there was a diamond robbery in the second book that gets solved in the third. So it's a heist story. With a few stops along the way. I hope you enjoy it.

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  2. Congratulations on the release of Mission Road, Ron! I enjoyed reading the first two books set in the Northern Divide. As an Ontario native now living in Ottawa, I enjoy seeing the references to the rugged landscape and I understand the cold winters!

    Hallie: In terms of rugged landscape, I also love reading books by Kent Krueger and C.J. Box for the gorgeous setting as well as their portrayal of complex, tough but sympathetic lead characters. Other long-running series I like reading include Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch series set in Maine, as well as Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mysteries set in various US National Parks. And some new authors I enjoy reading include Keenan Powell's Maeve Malloy series set in Alaska.

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    1. Yes to those ... and a shout out to Keenan Powell!

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  3. Congratulations. I love rugged stark landscapes, but I'm not sure how I'll do with violent anything.

    I've been reading Shannon Baker's Kate Fox mysteries set in the Nebraska Sandhills. She does a brilliant job with the setting. I also love Nevada Barr, but haven't read any in a few years.

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    1. Edith, I don't know if Nevada Barr has stopped writing the Anna Pigeon series but the last 2 books of hers that I read were stand-alones.

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    2. I wonder if she did. I had noticed a trend in the last few Anna Pigeon books that they were getting darker and darker. One in particular still haunts me. I had to give them up, much as I had previously enjoyed them and consider her writing excellent.

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    3. Susan, I agree with you that the latter Anna Pigeon books were getting dark. And I think I know which book you are referring to.

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    4. Same here, Susan. The one with the serial killer was my last Anna Pigeon book.

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  4. Frank Yakabuski is new to me and I'm off to find him via the first book. But this embarrassed Canadian had to first look up what the Northern Divide is; oops, I must have snoozed through the geography class...

    As for settings, I second Grace on Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series set in US National Parks, and I would add Sara Paretsky's VI Warshawski stories set in Chicago. If vivid writing about a place or region is, in part, meant to inspire us to want to go there, then both both Barr and Paretsky's writing qualify for me.

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    1. Don't be embarrassed, Amanda. I majored in geography in university and live in Ontario but I never heard of the Northern Divide either, lol.

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    2. You can add me. I never heard of this place.
      Well, someplace new to explore...

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    3. I checked on Wikipedia and just learned something about my own province.
      I won't die today because each day we learn something new, we are not suppose to die.

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    4. I confess I had to look it up too - maybe Ron can speak to it since it’s an essential aspect of his novel ... maybe a metaphor? Wondering...

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  5. Happy bookday, Ron. I read RAGGED LAKE and thoroughly enjoyed it when it first came out. I'm going to revisit it now, and I've ordered your second book, too. I like adventures in the far north, and, Amanda, I can't believe you didn't know what the Northern Divide was. Maybe because you are a prairie dweller? lol

    Books with dark settings? Well, that would include all the Nordic Noir for starters. And the Russians, like Boris Pasternak.

    But best of all? ICE STATION ZEBRA, by Alistair MacLean. This is the coldest darkest book I think I've ever read, to be enjoyed on a hot muggy day, which makes you grateful that you are safe at home and none of your toes or fingers are dropping off.

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    1. Ann, for some reasons I stopped reading Nordic mysteries until recently. My favourite new author is Ragnar Jonasson, both his Dark Iceland series and Hulda trilogy. His books portray cold, claustrophobic settings so well and are usually set in winter.

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    2. I’m a big fan of R J too ... and Iceland for unsettling noir settings

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  6. Congrats on the new book, Ron. Frank sounds like the perfect detective for a rugged setting.

    I don't know how dark and bleak they are, but the settings of the few Longmire books I've read from Craig Johnson have always made me happy for my creature comforts.

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  7. Is that different from the Continental Divide?

    I love those books that are set in rugged and/or mountainous places. Besides the ones mentioned I'll have to include Todd Borg's series that take place in the Tahoe area.

    Putting your books on my list, Ron.

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    1. Judi, Google it. I just did, and Wikipedia has a picture of where it is. Really, I never considered a divide there. So glad I looked!

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    2. I'm noticing a few questions about the Northern Divide. It's a fun subject. I liked it so much I wrote a book.
      It's a real geographical place, that runs from Labrador, Canada, to Minnesota. It is also called the Laurentian Divide. As a journalist, I did a story once that brought me to the Northern Divide. The headwaters of some major rivers in Ottawa, the city where I live, are on the Northern Divide, and while the rivers are well known, the source of them are almost a mystery (or certainly a debate.) That was the news feature. And it is WILD country up there. Completely off the grid. Which got me thinking about a book.
      Here's a "fun fact" about the Northern Divide. While it starts off rather majestic in Northern Quebec, it more or less peters out in Minnesota, when it runs up against the Continental Divide. Before turning into insignificance, though, the Divide passes through Hibbing Minnesota. Which means Bob Dylan was born on the Northern Divide.
      I have been wondering for five years if that might mean something, but I still can't decide.

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    3. Ron, I did not know you are also an Ottawan!
      And I also never heard of the alternate name of Laurentian Divide.
      Looking up your book!

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    4. I love that about Bob Dylan - there’s got to be a way to work that into a plot

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    5. Hallie,
      You would think so, wouldn't you? Five years I've been playing with it. There's some strange, Dylanesque, contradicting duality there, but damn if I can find it. It's almost like it's blowing . . . . . all right, shoot me.

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  8. Wm. Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor books set in Minnesota. The geographical setting, enhanced by local Native American legends and traditions, becomes a character.

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    1. I agree. I feel the same about Crain Johnson's Longmire books set in Wyoming.

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    2. That sounds perfect. I'm familiar with the Longmire books, but I'll have to check out Krueger.

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  9. Good Morning Hallie,
    You have some early risers. I thought I'd be doing well by being here for 8:30. I hope I haven't kept anyone waiting.
    Setting is important to the Yakabuski books, almost another character, and I like books that are written that way. For a rugged stark setting, it's hard to beat Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. That books is so perfect, it's almost intimidating. Jim Harrison's Legends of the Fall was another influence. Great atmosphere and setting. So much so, I almost forget the plot. Chandler was so known for concentrating on setting and character over plot he sometimes forgot to solve a murder (he did it in the Long Goodbye.) But everyone remembers the Santa Anna wind. It shows the power of setting. I've noticed one of your readers has mentioned C.J. Box, and he's another writer I quite admire. read my first book this winter, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

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  10. Ron, welcome to JRW and congratulations on your new book.
    Hallie, thank you very much for introducing us to Ron. His books sound like the type that both Irwin and I love to read. (Although it's true, I've been almost entirely in a cozy coma for 2 months.) Today I'll search out his first book.
    Christine Carbo writes of Glacier National Park. She lives in Whitefish, so it is in her backyard. Her first book, The Wild Inside is a serious study of the lasting effects of childhood trama, at the same time being one of the most incredible stories of the wild I've ever read ever. She has four books with different protagonists, several reappearing in one another's stories. They are all excellent, tightly plotted and scenic. We discovered her just before our trip to Glacier and devoured all 4 books in a flash.
    For being just plain cold, Souvenir by James R. Benn is one to make you shiver. Set in January 1945 in the Ardennes region, a small band of US forces is up against a determined enemy and incompetent leadership. Br-r-r. Really good story. I love Benn's books.

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  11. Ron, congratulations on your third book. Loved your piece on Jungle Reads this morning. I wouldn't say wilderness settings always speak to me (Kate Shugak always did though) but you really caught my interest.Certainly, what you wrote about the place and characters but also: because I grew up on the NY/Canadian border? Watching Canadian tv? Visiting relatives in Toronto, Niagara Falls and Ottawa? Having been in the Laurentian park a few times and knowing there is that great open space beyond it? Havbing been in Quebec... in winter? Yes. Going to go order right now!

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    1. That's a great post. You should write a book.

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    2. Thank you. I do write books, about Brooklyn, where I live now, but I've written a few stories about the home turf (1,000 Islands region.) And I have this new book idea... :-)

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    3. The editor for Ragged Lake lives in Brooklyn. Emily Schultz, a great editor and writer. Small world. Good luck with the book idea.

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  12. Ann, I still have a paperback copy of Ice Station Zebra--loved that book!

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  13. since Blogger keeps putting my responses out of sequence, here's my thoughts on today's book and question. I'm also a big fan of William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series, so your books are definitely heading for my TBR pile, Ron! Dark is okay even in these times, but it has to be something like this--where the character lives by a set of beliefs, no matter the cost--where the natural world is an important character--and especially if some new and different cultural element is introduced to me. For those reasons, I am a big fan of Tony Hillerman's books.

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  14. And for those reasons -- may I kindly offer mine, for your assessment.
    Cheers

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  15. Hallie, thanks for introducing me to a new to me author. I'll check out the Frank Yabuszki novels.

    To answer your question, off the top of my head, I think of the Three Pines series by Louise Penny.

    Diana

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  16. I've enjoyed the Anna Pigeon books and, of course, Julia Spencer Fleming. She is the reason I found this great group of book reading, unmet friends. Julia Keller's series in West Virginia keeps my attention as does the series by P. J. Tracy, though I usually read a lighter book after I finish one of these. Okay, Minneapolis is not rural but they get out of the city and these aren't "light" books. I think Louise Penny does a good job mixing distance locations into her series. A new literary place will be perfect distraction for me right now. Am checking your books in in Kindle now. Congratulations on your new publication in the series.

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  17. Ron, welcome to JRW and congratulations on your book! I'll look for your books.

    Diana

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  18. I’m sitting at the eye dr’s office waiting for my eyes to dilate. Joy. When I think of atmospheric stories I think James Fenimore Cooper. Last of the Mohicans and others could be absolutely foreboding. As is the NatGeo series Barkskins.
    Maybe Arkady Renko’s Russia?

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    1. I was thinking of mentioning The Last of the Mohicans, when Hallie first asked me about setting. Thats a funny coincidence. I also should have mentioned Julia Spencer Fleming as an author who excels in natural settings. And thanks to JRW readers I am now going to read Christine Carbo.

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  19. Congratulations on the new book in your series, Ron! I have yet to meet Frank, so will immediately remedy that.

    As for dark, rugged settings, I am, like Judy, a big fan of Christine Carbo. I love Julia's books, and Maine author Jen Blood has some fabulous wild settings in her books.

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    1. Deborah, I met Christine Carbo at the mystery conferences in Toronto and Vancouver. I have her books too.

      Diana

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  20. Thank you Deborah. I hope you enjoy Frank.

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  21. Deb, of course Julia's stories are very dependent upon the rugged nature of the setting. In the first book, she has her heroine half frozen in the woods.

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  22. I really liked the first two books! I hope to read this one soon, but have to wait for the library to reopen, and then get them to order it. :-(

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  23. Too bad there wasn't a giveaway copy for this one! *SIGH*

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