minneapolis (minn.)

Ten-year-old Julia Gillian's best friend is keeping secrets, their beloved lunch lady was replaced by a tyrant, and trumpet lessons prove difficult, making it hard for her to follow the music teacher's advice to "look for the joy.".

Nine-year-old Julia Gillian learns a lot about facing fear as she and her St. Bernard, Bigfoot, take long walks through their Minneapolis neighborhood one hot summer, and she seeks the courage to finish a book that could have an unhappy ending.

Erick Taylor, in short order, comes out of the closet, drops out of school, leaves home, and moves in with his best friend, David, a drag queen whose performance name is "Miss Chloe." Immediately star-struck, the self-indulgent, rather dim Erick vows he, too, will become a fabulous performer (under the name Miss Geneva Flowers), but his dreams are derailed by the reality of his growing addiction to crystal meth.

"Spanning two centuries and two continents, Dream Country is the story of five generations of young people caught in a spiral of death and exile between Liberia and the United States"--Provided by publisher.

At odds with his sister, Tina, fourteen, who says their father murdered their mother, Todd, fifteen, who claims it was self-defense, begins to lose faith in their father when he pressures Todd to get Tina to change her story, and being in separate foster homes only makes things harder.

When Liam, a fourteen-year-old graffiti artist, can't keep his grades up and is threatened by a local gang in the projects of Minneapolis, his mother sends him to Lake Michigan for the summer.

A widow convinces police officer Lucas Davenport to help investigate the disappearance of her daughter who identifies with the goth subculture when she learns that another female who was part of the scene has been killed.

Minneapolis police detective Lucas Davenport, about to arrest state senator Burt Kline for allegedly having sex with a minor, receives a second assignment to investigate the murders of a wealthy elderly woman and her maid, and while at first it is difficult to tell if the victim's antique-filled home has been robbed, he soon finds a link to a series of art thefts and a surprising connection to the sleazy senator.

Lucas Davenport investigates a series of horrific murders that bear a striking resemblance to the techniques of three psychopathic killers locked up in the Minnesota Security Hospital.

Lucas Davenport, settled into his new life as husband, father, and state-employed detective in Minnesota, investigates what appears to be the lynching of a white woman and African-American man and uncovers an international crime ring.