Mary Logue has published thirteen mysteries, nine in the Claire Watkins series, as well as poetry and young adult nonfiction and fiction, including the novel Dancing with an Alien (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age) and the best-selling Sleep like a Tiger, which won a Caldecott and a Zolotow honor award. She has taught at Hamline University in St. Paul and lives on both sides of the Mississippi River, in Minnesota and Wisconsin, with writer Pete Hautman.
With a poet's eye, Mary Logue evokes the harsh world of frontier Deadwood, South Dakota. The Streel relates the journey of a scrappy young Irish woman as she's forced from her homeland to the American midwest. Tersely and beautifully, Logue recreates the muddy streets of Deadwood, the haphazard keeping of the peace, and the rugged hearts and souls of those seeking their fortune in the Black Hills gold rush of the late 1800s. The Streel is both a taut mystery and a cautionary tale of the evils of greed. I loved the redoubtable heroine, Brigid Reardon, and I loved every stunning line of this fine story. -William Kent Krueger, author of This Tender Land Mary Logue is, hands down, one of my favorite writers. The Streel shows her at the top of her game. The novel is a rich combination of elements-part history, part gripping mystery, and part immigrant saga. Highly recommended! -Ellen Hart, author of Twisted at the Root Mary Logue blends family lore and the history of the Irish diaspora in The Streel, a lively tale of teenage immigrants in 1880s America. Brigid finds work as a servant in St. Paul, then joins her brother and his friends in the gold fields of South Dakota, where she solves a murder and strikes it rich. Our great-grandmothers had the Right Stuff. -Elizabeth Gunn, author of Burning Meredith Introduces a gritty, charming, clever protagonist whose musings provide a perfect period feel. -Kirkus Reviews A well-constructed plot, lilting prose, and a heroine who's determined to escape constricting female roles make this an exceptional regional historical. -Publishers Weekly (starred review) Her background as a poet... lends her books a concise crispness not always to be found in today's overly long novels. While this book clocks in at a little over 200 pages, it's packed with character and action from the first page to the last. -Mystery Scene Magazine Reardon is a prayerful Catholic girl who is also appealingly droll and self-possessed. -The Washington Post Logue does a wonderful job of putting the reader into what is barely a town at the end of the civilized world... From Galway to New York to a grand house in St. Paul that could be on Summit Avenue, and then to Deadwood, Brigid learns she can depend only on herself as she builds a life in the new world. -Pioneer Press In young Brigid Reardon, she has created a unique detective with a winning story. Readers will not be disappointed. -The Emporia Gazette [Logue] brings her signature brio and nerve to this new thriller, following a young immigrant caught in a deadly plot twist, surviving by her wits and grave in 19th century America. -Northern Wilds