J.F. Riordan's Mesmerizing 'Robert's Rules'

Expand

No Wisconsinite would be surprised to learn that some cities in the Badger state experience the coldest winter temperatures of anywhere in the United States. In Door County, on Washington Island, the average temperature during the winter months hovers somewhere around 19 degrees Fahrenheit. With a population of approximately 700 year-round residents, it is not hard to imagine that winters on Washington Island can at times feel isolating and a bit cruel. So when 30-something Fiona, the protagonist in author J.F. Riordan’s novel Robert’s Rules, decides to take up a bet and spend an entire winter living with her girlfriend on the island, she has little idea what is in store for her, even though she is relocating from nearby Ephraim.

Robert’s Rules is the third installment in the award-winning North of the Tension Line series. Like her previous novels, Riordan’s sense of place is a central character in the story, and her vivid depictions of northern Wisconsin winters are extremely apt, poignant and mesmerizing. Alongside the rich descriptions of Door County that fill the pages, Robert’s Rules is replete with a wry small-town cast of characters. Told in a beautifully crafted literary style, Robert’s Rules is an engaging story filled with deep insights about people and their environment. In the process, Riordan reveals the eccentric and oftentimes unexpected realities behind the bucolic images of modern small-town life.

Riordan moved to Wisconsin as a child and studied voice at the University of New Mexico before returning to Milwaukee to teach English. She will appear at Boswell Book Co. at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 24.