Up North for the Fourth
Starvation Lake Mysteries, Molasses Smokehouse, Kasey Chambers, Dave Parker, Come Over
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This issue includes the best bites from our time up north, a trilogy of Michigan mysteries, a surprising source of BBQ tri-tip in Midland, an Australian singer on her Backbone tour, a Pirate right fielder with a great arm, and some sort of hair-related tool. I hope you like the picks and pics.
Barb and I were invited by Bob and Janelle Burke to spend the Fourth of July holiday with them in Topinabee, Michigan. They have a completely redone chalet on Mullett Lake. Some people have trouble spelling the name of their lake, as evidenced by this display at The Summer Store in nearby Indian River.
We have known Bob and Janelle for 42 years and always have a great time with them. We walked, talked, laughed, boated, ate, drank, watched myriad fireworks shows from all around the lake, played bridge, and played euchre.
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Fave Five 144: Up North for the Fourth
Bryan’s Books (Starvation Lake Mysteries), Midland Meat (Molasses Smokehouse), Awesome Aussie (Kasey Chambers), Cobra’s Cannon (Dave Parker), and Come Over.
Fave Five List: Best Bites Up North
Mediterranean Pizza at Vivio’s in Indian River: Mozzarella Cheese, Artichoke Hearts, Black Olives, and Tomatoes (we added Pepperoncini and Feta Cheese)
Two Homemade Meatballs at Vivios’s: a steal at $4
Shrimp Taco at La Casa De Rosas, a food truck in Indian River: a tasty 9 p.m. snack following our 4 p.m. dinner at Vivio’s
Chocolate Shake at Breakers in Topinabee: Their slogan is “More Than Just A Bar” and they had put up signs announcing that they now served shakes. It was the perfect option for a teetotaler sitting at the bar.
Sweet Roll at Noka Café in Topinabee: For some reason, the new owners changed the name from “Café Noka.” Unfortunately, Peanut Butter Pie was not available for breakfast this time.
Book Best Bet
Starvation Lake Mysteries (3-book series) by Bryan Gruley
Bryan grew up in Detroit and attended Catholic Central High School. His brother Mike lives in our neighborhood in Northville. I liked this trilogy for the story, the writing, the characters, and the familiar setting in northern Michigan.
Starvation Lake
In the dead of a Michigan winter, pieces of a snowmobile wash up near the crumbling, small town of Starvation Lake—the same snowmobile that went down with Starvation’s legendary hockey coach years earlier. But everybody knows Coach Blackburn's accident happened five miles away on a different lake. As rumors buzz about mysterious underground tunnels, the evidence from the snowmobile says one thing: murder.
Gus Carpenter, editor of the local newspaper, has recently returned to Starvation after a failed attempt to make it big at the Detroit Times. In his youth, Gus was the goalie who let a state championship get away, crushing Coach's dreams and earning the town's enmity. Now he's investigating the murder of his former coach. But even more unsettling to Gus are the holes in the town’s past and the gnawing suspicion that those holes may conceal some dark and disturbing secrets—secrets that some of the people closest to him may have killed to keep.
The Hanging Tree
When Gracie McBride, the wild girl who had left town eighteen years earlier, is found dead in an apparent suicide shortly after her homecoming, it sends shock waves through her native Starvation Lake. Gus Carpenter, executive editor of the Pine County Pilot, sets out to solve the mystery with the help of his old flame and now girlfriend, Pine County sheriff deputy Darlene Esper. As Gus and Darlene investigate, they can’t help but question if Gracie’s troubled life really ended in suicide or if the suspicious crime-scene evidence adds up to murder.
But in such a small town it’s impossible to be an impartial investigator—Gracie was Gus’s second cousin; Darlene’s best friend; and the lover of Gus’s oldest pal, Soupy Campbell. Yet with all the bad blood between Gus and Gracie over the years, Gus is easily distracted by other problems. His employer is trying to push him out, the locals are annoyed that his stories have halted construction on a new hockey rink, and Darlene’s estranged husband has returned to reclaim his wife.
When Gus tries to retrace Gracie’s steps to discover what happened to her in the eighteen years she was away from Starvation Lake, he’s forced to return to Detroit, the scene of his humiliating past. And though he’s determined to find out what drove Gracie back home, Gus is unprepared for the terrible secrets he uncovers.
The second book in Bryan Gruley’s irresistible Starvation Lake series, The Hanging Tree is a compelling story about family and friendship, sex and violence, and the failure of love to make everything right.
The Skeleton Box
Mysterious break-ins are plaguing the small town of Starvation Lake. While elderly residents are out playing bingo, someone is slipping into their homes to rifle through financial and personal files. The “Bingo Night Burglaries” leave the entire town uneasy.
When a break-in escalates to murder, Gus Carpenter, editor of the Pine County Pilot, is forced to investigate the most difficult story of his life. Not only is the victim his ex-girlfriend Darlene’s mother, but her body was found in the home of Bea Carpenter—Gus’s mother. Suffering from worsening dementia, Bea remembers little of the break-in.
Gus sets out to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when the story leads him to a lockbox his mother has kept secret for years, Gus doesn’t realize that its contents could forever change his perception of Starvation Lake, his family, and the value of the truth.
From Wikipedia: The trilogy is set in the fictional town of Starvation Lake, based on Bellaire, the seat of Antrim County, Michigan. The real Starvation Lake is a lake in the next county, but the fictional town is on the lake, and the first novel begins when the snowmobile of a long-missing youth hockey coach "washes up on the icy shores".
Bryan Gruley
From his site: Bryan Gruley is the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of the Starvation Lake trilogy, the first book of which was nominated for an Edgar Award and won Anthony, Barry, and Strand awards. He has been compared favorably to author Dennis Lehane and Richard Russo.
When he's not making things up, Gruley lives in northern lower Michigan with his wife, Pam, and enjoys ice hockey, golf, guitar, and his five grandchildren. A journalist for over forty years, Gruley shared in The Wall Street Journal's Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has won numerous awards for his nonfiction.
Restaurant Recommendation
Molasses Smokehouse + Bar 201 E. Main St., Midland, MI 48640
On our way home from up north, we abandoned the heavy traffic on I-75 and took back roads. This eventually led us to Midland, where we in the past we have stopped at Bone Daddy’s BBQ. Unfortunately, its last day of operation was in April, so we looked for another option. This place in downtown Midland sounded promising from its website.
I don’t expect to find tri-tip outside of California’s Central Coast, but it was on the menu here, listed as Santa Maria Tri-Tip. I ordered a one-meat dinner with BBQ fried rice and coleslaw. The tri-tip, sides, and all 8 of the sauces were excellent.
The restaurant’s site invokes St. Louis, our former hometown:
St. Louis style is sauce-style barbecue. It’s the most ubiquitous type of barbecue found in the United States and it offers a ton of variety and flexibility. It’s also defined by one of its key ingredients—molasses.
Marvelous Musician
For nearly two hours last night, Kasey gave a funny, heartfelt, and spirited performance at The Ark in Ann Arbor. I first heard her on WUMB and became a fan. I saw her on June 14, 2009 (with then-husband Shane Nicholson) and on June 23, 2017 at The Ark. Kasey was on Cayamo 2019 with her family, and she was great.
Last Night’s Set List
Ain't No Little Girl
Backbone (The Desert Child)
This Flower
Pony
A Little Bit Lonesome
Nullarbor Song
The Divorce Song
Arlo
We're All Gonna Die Someday
Little Red Riding Hood
Not Pretty Enough (with Bill and Nash Chambers and Poet)
Lose Yourself (Eminem cover)
The Captain
A New Day Has Come
Encore: Barricades & Brickwalls
From Wikipedia: Kasey Chambers (born June 4, 1976) is an Australian country singer-songwriter and musician born in Mount Gambier to musicians Diane and Bill Chambers. Her older brother is musician and producer Nash Chambers. All four were members of family country-music group Dead Ringer Band in Bowral, New South Wales, from 1992 to 1998. Chambers launched her solo career thereafter. Five of her 12 studio albums have reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, Barricades & Brickwalls (September 2001), Wayward Angel (May 2004), Carnival (August 2006), Rattlin' Bones (April 2008) and Dragonfly (January 2017). In November 2018, she was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and has won an additional 14 ARIA Music Awards with nine for Best Country Album. Her autobiography, A Little Bird Told Me..., co-authored with music journalist Jeff Apter, was released in 2011.
You Don't Know Me (at The Ark on June 14, 2009)
The Captain
Someone Like Me
Wildflower
My Playlist
Sports Star
Dave passed away on June 28, 2025. I have vivid memories of him as a tormentor of my St. Louis Cardinals, both slugging at the plate and throwing out runners from right field with the cannon he had for an arm.
From Wikipedia: David Gene Parker (born June 9, 1951 in Grenada, Mississippi, died June 28, 2025 in Cincinnati, Ohio), nicknamed "the Cobra", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right fielder from 1973 to 1991. A seven-time All-Star, Parker won two National League batting titles and was the 1978 National League Most Valuable Player. He was a member of two World Series championship teams, winning with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979 and the Oakland Athletics in 1989.
Parker was the first American athlete to earn an average of $1 million per year, having signed a five-year, $5 million contract in January 1979. Parker's career achievements include 2,712 hits, 339 home runs, 1,493 runs batted in, and a lifetime batting average of .290. Parker was also known as a solid defensive outfielder during the first half of his career with a powerful arm, winning three straight Gold Gloves during his prime. From 1975 to 1979, he threw out 72 runners, including 26 in 1977. In 2025, Parker was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He died 29 days before he was to be inducted.
Dave Parker, Power Hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Dies at 74 by Richard Goldstein of The New York Times
Dave Parker, the slugging outfielder nicknamed the Cobra who won a pair of National League batting championships, helped propel the Pittsburgh Pirates to the 1979 World Series championship and was belatedly elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame late last year, died on Saturday at a nursing facility in Cincinnati. He was 74.
At 6 feet 5 inches and about 230 pounds, Parker was a feared left-handed batter, hitting 339 home runs, driving in 1,493 runs and collecting 2,712 hits in his 19 major league seasons. He was a seven-time All-Star and displayed a rocket arm in right field, winning three Gold Glove awards.
In a Zoom conference with reporters after his election was announced, Parker was asked if he had envisioned himself as a Hall of Famer. “Without a doubt,” he said. “‘When the leaves turned brown, I’d be wearing the batting crown.’ That was one of my sayings, so I always thought that I was going to be a major leaguer. I told my mother at 8 years old that I would be a baseball star and one day buy her a house. Well, I did that in ’78. I got that done.”
Career Highlights
Picture Pun
I can vaguely recall what this is used for.
