Check out our Most Anticipated Books for 2025

Excerpt from Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Readalikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

Ordinary Grace

by William Kent Krueger
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • Mar 26, 2013, 320 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Mar 2014, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this Book

Print Excerpt

My father gave Engdahl no more notice and asked the officer what it was all about.

The officer shrugged. "Two drunks, a wrong word. Like putting a match to gasoline."

"I ain't no drunk." Engdahl sat hunched over on the edge of a long metal bench and stared at the floor as if contemplating the advisability of puking there.

"And he's not old enough to be drinking in a bar, Cleve," my father pointed out.

"I'll be talking to the folks at Rosie's about that," the officer replied. Behind a door in the back wall a toilet flushed.

"Much damage?" my father asked.

"Mostly to Morris. They took it out to the parking lot."

The door in the back wall opened and a man walked out still working at the zipper on his pants.

"Doyle, I was just telling these folks how you came to bring in Engdahl and Gus."

The other man sat down and put his feet on the desk. He wasn't dressed in a uniform but from his look of comfort in that jailhouse I understood he was a policeman too. He said, "Yeah I was off duty at Rosie's. Watched 'em going at it in the bar, mouthing off to each other. When they took it outside, I figured it was time to break up the party."

My father spoke to Officer Blake: "All right if I take Gus home now?"

"Sure. He's in back." The policeman reached into the desk drawer for keys. "Crying shame about the Cole kid. I heard you spent most of yesterday with his folks."

"Yes," my father told him.

"I've got to say I'd much rather have my job than yours."

"You know that whole thing's got me wondering," Doyle, the offduty officer, said. "I've seen that kid on those tracks hundreds of times. He loved trains, I guess. Can't figure how he came to get himself killed by one."

Officer Blake said, "What do you mean?"

"I talked to Jim Gant. He was the first deputy on the scene. Gant said it looked like the kid had just been sitting on the tracks. Didn't move at all when the train came. Real strange, you know? He wasn't deaf."

"Maybe he was retarded like Howdy Doody there," Engdahl said from his cell. "Didn't know enough to get his butt off that rail."

Doyle said, "One more word out of you and I'm coming in there and kick your ass."

Officer Blake found the keys he was searching for and shut the drawer. "Are they pursuing it?"

"Far as I know, nope. Officially an accident. No witnesses to say otherwise."

Officer Blake said, "You boys stay out here. And, Morris, you behave yourself."

My father asked, "Is it okay if my son uses your bathroom, Cleve?"

"Sure," the officer answered. He unlocked the metal door in the back wall and led my father through. I didn't have to use the bathroom. It had simply been a ruse to get inside the jail. I was afraid Doyle might make a point of it, but he didn't seem at all interested. Jake stood staring hard at Engdahl. Staring knives.

"What are you looking at, retard?"

"He's not retarded," I said.

"Yeah and your sister's not a harelip and your old man's not a friggin' pussy." He laid his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

I asked Doyle, "What did you mean about Bobby?"

He was tall and lean and looked tough as jerky. He wore his hair in a crew cut and his head was shiny with sweat from the heat of the night. He had ears every bit as big as Jake's but he wasn't the kind of guy anybody in their right mind would dare call Howdy Doody. He said, "You know him?"

Excerpted from Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. Copyright © 2013 by William Kent Krueger. Excerpted by permission of Atria Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  The Year, 1961

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Sequel
    The Sequel
    by Jean Hanff Korelitz
    In Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Sequel, Anna Williams-Bonner, the wife of recently deceased author ...
  • Book Jacket: My Good Bright Wolf
    My Good Bright Wolf
    by Sarah Moss
    Sarah Moss has been afflicted with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa since her pre-teen years but...
  • Book Jacket
    Canoes
    by Maylis De Kerangal
    The short stories in Maylis de Kerangal's new collection, Canoes, translated from the French by ...
  • Book Jacket: Absolution
    Absolution
    by Jeff VanderMeer
    Ten years ago, the literary landscape was changed forever when Jeff VanderMeer became the "King of ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading, you wish the author that wrote it was a ...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

X M T S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.