On the North Shore of Lake Superior, Lance Hansen “first came into contact with what would change everything he’d ever known.” In the first book of Vidar Sundstøl’s Minnesota trilogy, “The Land of Dreams,” Lance investigated the murder of a tourist at Father Baraga’s Cross, a crime that left Lance with the haunting suspicion his brother, Andy, was the murderer. Whereas the first book was sweeping in its scope, encompassing Lake Superior’s legends and landscape in a dark mystery, this second in the series, “Only the Dead,” is quite a different book. Here, the narrative turns inward on Lance’s gnawing obsession with his brother’s guilt, creating a bleak, lyrical tale that’s more a meditation on memory and place than a Minnesota mystery.

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