Big Island Remembered: Rollercoasters, Romance & Rage on Lake Minnetonka

It's 1899 and all is nearly perfect now for 21-year-old Macie Stewart. "Perfect" until her life on Lake Minnetonka is rocked by a murder.

Can a young adult -- a young woman yet -- meet the challenge of finding the murderer? If only she could foresee the shocking revelations that await all along the trail...

Bookkeeper Macie Stewart is up for adventure as she heads for Excelsior, Minnesota. There she will help reign in chaos at the luxurious St. Louis Hotel on the shores of beautiful Lake Minnetonka. This historic cozy mystery exposes Macie to the ultimate highs and lows of relationships with memorable inhabitants of the charming lakeside town.

Excitement and controversy surround the fabulous amusement park to be built on Big Island when a murder shifts the focus.

Voracious reader, Peggy Watson, notes that "Big Island Remembered is an engaging story with surprising twists and turns. The plot is intriguing; subplots add interest. The gradual reveal of colorful characters, as well as economy of words, kept me reading. Weaving details about an interesting period in U.S. history into a cozy mystery was an ambitious project that readers will really enjoy."

Can a young woman outdo the seasoned professional investigator? Will justice be served by the perpetrator -- or the perpetrators?

Wayzata's Reed Wahlberg brings a very different vocational background to this project. He's a graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. After graduation, he spent a year teaching English in France. Upon his return, he coached competitive swimming and taught high school French. After developing a variety of computer software for use with his swim teams, he shifted careers and went to work as a corporate software engineer. In another career move, his long-term interests in statistics and quality improvement led him to Boston Scientific where he served as a quality engineer. He is now retired. His distinctive career path provided a huge diversity of satisfying and stimulating work experience.

Reed has been married for almost 30 years to a marvelous woman, Diane Meier, who is about to retire from her pediatric practice. That will afford them more time for the many outdoor activities they both enjoy. 

Reed has authored published articles on competitive swimming and on design of experiments but this is his first book. He teamed up with veteran author Bette Hammel to help her with computer issues as she was finishing her previous book, her autobiography. After completing that book, Bette spoke of a long-held desire to write a cozy mystery based on historical fiction around Lake Minnetonka. That idea piqued Reed's interest and their partnership took off in earnest.

Reed notes that creating Big Island Remembered was engaging in so many ways. It was fun to read local history and encounter colorful historical figures to weave into their story. He and Bette never ceased to be amazed by the usefulness of the Internet in creating historical fiction. As their fictional plot developed, they were able to find factual information to enhance the story and to carry the reader 120 years back in time.