Are you part of a book club? If you’re interested in hosting a discussion about one of my books, I’ve got some ideas for you. And if you need someone to help facilitate the discussion, I think I know someone who might be able to help: Me! Drop me a note: Dean[at]DeanKlinkenberg[dot]com.

Mysteries

Rock Island Lines

Book Summary

Travel writer Frank Dodge arrives in the Quad Cities to research John Looney, a notorious 1920s gangster who once ruled Rock Island’s criminal underworld. When he meets a young chiropractic student who claims to be Looney’s descendant, Frank thinks he’s found the perfect angle for his story. But within hours, the student is dead, and Frank finds himself caught between suspicious police, a determined FBI agent, and long-buried secrets that some people will kill to protect. Set against the backdrop of the Mississippi River, this atmospheric mystery explores how the past shapes the present and the unexpected ways that history can come back to haunt us.

Discussion Questions

1. How does the Mississippi River function as both setting and character in the novel? What role does it play in shaping the story and its themes?

2. The book explores how family legacies influence who we become. How do different characters wrestle with their family histories? How do they either embrace or reject their heritage?

3. Frank Dodge is an unconventional protagonist – a former therapist turned travel writer. How does his background influence how he approaches solving the mystery?

4. The novel weaves together historical events with contemporary crime. How effectively does the author connect past and present? What parallels do you see between the two time periods?

5. Discuss the friendship between Frank and Jefferson. How does their long history affect their interactions? What does each bring to their partnership?

6. The theme of revenge plays a central role in the story. How do different characters justify their actions? Is revenge ever justified?

7. How does the author use the Quad Cities setting? What role do local landmarks and history play in the story?

8. Several characters struggle with questions of identity. How do they define themselves in relation to their past? How do they try to change their stories?

9. What role does truth play in the novel? How do different characters relate to truth and deception?

10. The book explores how we create narratives about ourselves and our families. How do these stories help or harm the characters?

11. Discuss the moral ambiguity present in the novel. How do characters justify actions that might otherwise be considered wrong?

12. How does the author use the contrast between the tourist-friendly face of the Quad Cities and its grittier aspects? What does this say about how communities deal with their histories?

Topics for Further Discussion

The history of organized crime in the Midwest
The role of the Mississippi River in American culture
How communities remember (or forget) their darker histories
The impact of family legacy on personal identity
The ethics of revenge and vigilante justice
The relationship between truth and storytelling

Double-Dealing in Dubuque

Book Summary

“Double Dealing in Dubuque” follows freelance writer Frank Dodge as he arrives in Dubuque, Iowa, to write about the boutique food movement for Wandering Gourmet magazine. What starts as a straightforward assignment becomes complicated when a fire breaks out at a food convention, leading to two deaths. Along with his friend Brian Jefferson, Frank finds himself drawn into investigating the incident, uncovering layers of rivalry, politics, and long-buried secrets in this Mississippi River town. The novel explores themes of loyalty, belonging, and the complex relationships that bind small communities together, while offering an insider’s view of the contemporary food scene and historic river towns.

Discussion Questions

1. How does Frank’s status as an outsider in Dubuque affect his investigation and interactions? What does this suggest about insider/outsider dynamics in small communities?

2. The novel features several strong female characters. How do their roles and relationships with each other drive the story forward?

3. Food plays a central role in the novel. How does the author use food and the boutique food movement to explore larger themes about authenticity, tradition, and change?

4. Frank struggles with personal relationships throughout the novel. How does his past affect his ability to connect with others? What does this suggest about the relationship between personal history and present choices?

5. The Mississippi River serves as more than just a setting. How does the river influence the story and its characters?

6. The novel explores various forms of loyalty – to friends, family, employers, and community. How do different characters navigate competing loyalties?

7. What role does the city’s history play in the contemporary events of the novel? How does the past influence the present in both the setting and the characters’ lives?

8. How does the author use humor throughout the novel? What purpose does it serve in the larger narrative?

9. The novel features several pairs of rivals. How do these rivalries reflect larger themes about competition and cooperation in small communities?

10. Frank is a travel writer by trade. How does his professional perspective influence how he approaches both the investigation and his relationships with others?

Letting Go in La Crosse

Book Summary

In this third Frank Dodge mystery, travel writer Frank returns to his hometown area of La Crosse, Wisconsin, for what should be a straightforward assignment about sand mining’s impact on tourism. While there, he finds himself caught between his past and present – visiting his former partner Greg who is dying from Alzheimer’s disease, while unexpectedly starting a new relationship. As Frank investigates the controversial sand mining industry dividing the community, he becomes entangled in a web of greed, corruption, and violence that forces him to confront difficult truths about trust, forgiveness, and moving forward.

Discussion Questions

1. How does the novel explore the theme of letting go – both literally and metaphorically? What are the different things various characters need to let go of?

2. The sand mining controversy divides the community between economic opportunity and environmental/quality of life concerns. How does the author present the different perspectives? Did you find yourself sympathizing with one side more than the other?

3. Frank struggles with guilt over leaving Greg after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. How do you think you would handle a similar situation with a partner? What obligations do we have to sick partners?

4. The novel takes place in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin/Minnesota. How does the author use this unique setting to enhance the story? What role does sense of place play?

5. Trust and deception are major themes in the book. How do different characters navigate truth and lies in their relationships? What role does self-deception play?

6. How does Frank’s relationship with Greg’s sister Emily evolve over the course of the novel? What allows them to move past their previous antagonism?

7. The novel explores how communities change over time – both Frank’s hometown and the broader region. How do characters deal with these changes differently? What determines whether change is viewed as progress or decline?

8. What role does forgiveness play in the story – both self-forgiveness and forgiving others? Which characters struggle most with forgiveness and why?

9. How does Frank’s career as a travel writer inform how he approaches investigating the sand mining story? What are the benefits and drawbacks of his outsider perspective?

10. The ending forces Frank to make difficult choices. Do you agree with his decisions? What would you have done differently in his situation?

Murder on the Mississippi

Summary

Murder on the Mississippi is the fourth installment in Dean Klinkenberg’s Frank Dodge Mystery series. In this riverboat-set whodunit, travel writer Frank Dodge boards the River Voyager for what should be a simple assignment—writing a feature article about the Mississippi River cruise for a travel magazine. He’s joined by his octogenarian friend Ruby and police detective friend Brian Jefferson.

Soon after boarding, Frank meets three sisters—Michelle, Yolanda, and Angela Green—who reveal they’re on a mission to find the men who murdered their father in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1974. According to a tip Michelle received, two of the killers are aboard this very cruise. When a passenger mysteriously disappears overboard and is later found dead, Frank finds himself drawn into a decades-old mystery rooted in racial violence, justice delayed, and the lingering effects of historical trauma.

Set against the backdrop of the majestic Mississippi River, the novel explores themes of identity, justice, obsession, and reconciliation while providing a fascinating glimpse into life aboard a modern river cruise.

Discussion Questions

History’s Legacy: How does the novel portray the lasting impact of historical racial violence, not just on the victims’ families but on entire communities? What does Michelle’s lifelong pursuit tell us about generational trauma?
Justice and Closure: Michelle devoted her entire life to finding her father’s killers. Do you think she found the closure she was seeking? Was her sacrifice worth it in the end?
Sibling Relationships: The three Green sisters have different ways of dealing with their father’s murder. How do their varied approaches to grief and justice create tension among them? Do you relate more to Michelle’s determination or her sisters’ desire to move forward?
Identity and Reinvention: Several characters in the novel assume new identities. What does the book suggest about the possibility of truly leaving the past behind? Is reinvention a form of escape or survival?
Setting as Character: How does the Mississippi River itself function as a character in the novel? What symbolism might the author be employing by setting this story on a river?
Forgiveness vs. Justice: The epilogue touches on the difference between forgiveness and moving on. Helen Kraft’s article portrays Michelle as having forgiven her father’s killers, but Michelle explicitly rejects this idea. Does justice require forgiveness? What do you think about the cultural expectation that victims should forgive?
Frank Dodge as Protagonist: How does Frank’s position as an outsider to the Green family’s tragedy allow him a unique perspective? What are his strengths and limitations as an investigator?
Historical Context: The book references actual historical events like the Vicksburg boycott of 1972. How does understanding these real events enhance your reading of the fictional narrative?
Hidden Pasts: The novel features characters who have hidden their true identities and histories. What might the author be suggesting about how well we really know the people around us?
Complicity and Silence: The crew members were afraid to speak out against the captain, even when they knew he was tyrannical. How does this silence mirror larger societal patterns around violence and injustice?
The River as Metaphor: The Mississippi River both conceals bodies and eventually reveals them. How might this serve as a metaphor for truth and justice in the novel?
The Role of Law Enforcement: The sheriff in 1974 Vicksburg essentially allows the killers to escape rather than pursuing justice. How does this compare to Jefferson’s role in helping Michelle? What has changed—and what hasn’t—about how our justice system addresses racial violence?

Memoir and Travel

Better Safe Than Sorry? Slow Boats, Chicken Buses, and the Radical Choice to Trust the World

Book Summary

Better Safe Than Sorry? Slow Boats, Chicken Buses, and the Radical Choice to Trust the World is a collection of personal travel essays by Dean Klinkenberg. It asks whether a safety-first mindset costs us more than we realize, and how much of what we fear about unfamiliar places is real. The essays span about twenty-five years of travel, from 2001 to 2025, most of it with his husband, John.

The book’s Introduction opens with Dean, at twenty-one, backing out of a semester in France out of fear, then continues with an analysis of what shapes our fears and how fear shapes our lives. The essays that follow are grouped by theme into five parts: Facing Risk, Letting Go, Physical Discomfort, Relying on Others, and The Cost of Obsessing About Safety. Each part opens with a short reflection, and each essay begins with an epigraph.

Settings range widely: a crowded slow boat down the Mekong in Laos, New York three weeks after 9/11, a snowmobile tour of Yellowstone in winter, a canoe trip to the mouth of the Mississippi, a car stuck in a Missouri ditch, a sailboat in Belize, the medina of Fez, a stranger’s wake in El Salvador, a climb up China’s sacred Taishan, and a six-week trip through Madagascar and southern Africa. Dean writes candidly about anxiety, embarrassment, aging, depression, and his own misjudgments, and the stories often turn on interactions with strangers, a few of whom misled him but most of whom helped or welcomed him along the way.

About this guide

These questions follow the book’s five parts, so a group can cover it in one meeting or spread it across several. Each part opens with a few big-picture questions, then turns to specific essays.

The book is built around one question a stranger asked about Guatemala: “Is it safe?” Many of the questions below circle back to it, and to the gap between imagined risks and real ones. Groups don’t need to answer every question; pick the ones that spark the most conversation.

A note for facilitators: several essays touch on 9/11, El Salvador’s civil war, poverty, and grief. Some readers will bring their own strong experiences of travel, fear, or loss, so leave room for personal stories.

Opening questions: the whole book

The book opens with Dean backing out of a semester in Grenoble at age twenty-one. Why do you think he chose to start with a failure rather than a triumph? Have you ever turned down an opportunity out of fear?
When Dean describes Tikal at sunset, a stranger’s first question is “Is it safe?” What do you usually ask first when someone returns from a trip? What does your first question reveal?
The title ends with a question mark. By the end of the book, how would you answer it? Did your answer change as you read?
Dean argues that news, social media, politicians, and advertisers all profit from our fear. Do you agree? Where do your own ideas about which places are dangerous come from?
He says travel didn’t cure his anxiety; he just learned to take it along for the ride instead of letting it lead. What’s the difference? Does that distinction apply outside of travel?
Dean compares travel’s effect on him to wind shaping a sand dune: slow, gradual, often noticed only later. Which stories in the book best show that kind of change?
Dean and John travel as two middle-aged gay men, and Dean acknowledges that a single woman or other travelers face different risks. How does his identity shape the risks he takes and the welcome he receives? How might the book read differently from another traveler’s point of view?
The introduction ends with a teaser: did he ever regret not following the advice “better safe than sorry”? Maybe in Tangier. After reading “Snap Decisions,” do you think he did regret it?

Part 1: Facing Risk

What Is Risk? · Fast Boat or Slow Boat? · Looking for Pride in Missoula · Getting Away · Life Goes On

Dean says he feels risk first in his stomach and has learned to pick that feeling apart. How do you recognize risk in your own body? Do you trust that signal?
Fast Boat or Slow Boat? Dean and John chose the fast boat to save a day without asking what it involved. Rain forced them onto an overcrowded slow boat, which turned out to be the safer option. When has a plan falling apart worked in your favor?
On the slow boat, Dean admits feeling “smug satisfaction” watching younger backpackers complain. How does comparing ourselves to other travelers shape how we experience discomfort?
Looking for Pride in Missoula. Following Eagle Speaking into a dark alley felt like a bad idea, yet he was pointing them to exactly the right place. Did Dean and John make the right call? Afterward, Dean wonders whether he missed a chance to go deeper. How do you weigh a gut warning against a missed opportunity?
What role does Beth the bartender play in that evening? Why does it matter so much to have one person in an unfamiliar place who has your back?
Getting Away. San Salvador’s walls, razor wire, and armed guards were presumably meant to make people feel safe. Why did they have the opposite effect on Dean? Have visible security measures ever made you feel less safe?
In Taxisco, impatience costs Dean and John money, and exhaustion leads to arguments. How does prolonged vigilance wear on a person, or on a relationship? How did Monterrico restore them?
The missing hundred dollars turns up in Dean’s passport at the airport. What does that small ending say about panic and where we look for answers?
Life Goes On. Dean and John flew to New York three weeks after 9/11, and friends were stunned. Would you have gone? What were the strongest reasons to stay home, and how does Dean answer them?
At the gate, Dean catches himself worrying about a pilot who looks Middle Eastern and feels ashamed. Why do you think he included that moment? What does it say about how fear distorts our judgment of other people?
Union Square, with its shouting debates, musicians, and peace songs, felt reassuring to Dean after Ground Zero. Why might a noisy, disagreeing crowd be a better antidote to despair than quiet reverence?
Dean wonders whether the country might have responded differently to 9/11 if more people had gone to New York and listened. Is that idea naive, or does it hold something true about travel and empathy?

Part 2: Letting Go

Learning to Let Go · Out of My Comfort Zone · Moving On

Dean writes that travel compresses time: a couple of hours on a bus can turn strangers into intimate friends. Have you experienced that? Why might it be easier to open up to someone you’ll never see again?
He describes the emotional risk of these connections: Will my eagerness push them away? Does this friendship need to last? Which feels riskier to you, physical danger or emotional exposure?
Out of My Comfort Zone. Dean says he feels freer to take chances away from home, where he won’t run into people he knows. Do you behave differently when you travel? Is that version of you more or less “real”?
Salsa dancing at La Flama forces Dean past his fear of public embarrassment. What finally lets him stop caring about people laughing at him?
Dean keeps calling Mike long after Mike pulls away and calls his persistence both a strength and a flaw. Where is the line between not giving up and not letting go?
Looking back, Dean wishes he’d written a simple thank-you note instead of a long letter. Why is a graceful goodbye so hard? What would you have done?
Moving On. Dean finds it easier to leave places than people. Which places have “set their hooks” in you, and could you explain why?
Tito, the stern Spanish teacher, turns out to be quietly supportive. The man on the train to Sarajevo connects through solitaire and a phrasebook. What makes a connection possible without a shared language?
The gun-loving truck driver in northern Minnesota and Dean find common ground on gun violence. Why might that conversation have gone better in a bar with a stranger than it would online?
After the walk through the bog with Jake, Dean wonders if he’d been too casual about letting go. Should he have asked for contact information? Do some encounters mean more because they end?
Dean concludes that letting go is hard but beats staying home and arguing on Facebook. Do you agree that brief, real connections can matter more than lasting digital ones?

Part 3: Physical Discomfort

Getting Uncomfortable · Yellowstone in Winter · Knowing When to Say When · Where the River Ends · Lost in a Marsh

Dean distinguishes “type-one fun” (enjoyable in the moment) from “type-two fun” (miserable in the moment, great to tell about later). What’s your best type-two fun story? Why do those memories often last longer?
He argues that discomfort is as essential to travel as wonder. Do you agree, or is that easier to say from a comfortable chair at home?
Yellowstone in Winter. John hates the cold but goes anyway. What did they gain by visiting in the off-season, and what did it cost them? How do you decide whether a trip is worth the discomfort for your travel partner?
Dean worried about looking foolish on a snowmobile, then found it simple and thrilling. How often is the dread worse than the thing itself?
Knowing When to Say When. Dean quits his backpacking trip halfway, despite a magazine assignment and the fear of looking like a “silly old man.” Was quitting a failure or a success? When have you pushed through when you should have stopped, or stopped when you should have pushed?
The trip taught him he’d answered Skurka’s question wrong: he’s a camper, not a hiker. How can trying something and “failing” teach us more about ourselves than succeeding would have?
Dean writes frankly about his body changing with age. How should travelers adjust ambition as they get older without giving up adventure?
Where the River Ends. Dean expected the last stretch of the Mississippi to be industrial and bleak, yet found eagles, alligators, moonflowers, and wetlands. Where else in the book do expectations turn out wrong?
Ben, the experienced paddler, second-guesses the guides, and Dean admits he shared those doubts but kept quiet. What does the book suggest about trusting experts and guides?
Dean feared reaching the river’s end might end his curiosity about it. Instead it energized him. Why might finishing something open new doors rather than close them?
Lost in a Marsh. When Dean misses his campsite, he panics, then calms down and sees more wildlife than all day. What turned his mistake into a gift? Has getting lost ever led you somewhere better?
Which of Dean’s river lessons resonates most with you? For example: around every bend there’s another bend, or whether you drift or paddle hard, you end up in the same place. Do you agree with that last one?

Part 4: Relying on Others

Asking for Help · Personality Tests · Come Sail Away · A Bar Full of Strangers, a Room Full of Friends · Snap Decisions · Lemonade · Welcome to the War Zone!

Dean points out that we depend on strangers constantly at home, from road crews to other drivers, but only notice it when we travel. Why does dependence feel more dangerous abroad?
Is asking for help a sign of weakness or a skill? Which essays best show it as a skill?
Personality Tests. Dean threads the essay with questions from a Scientology test. What does that device add? Which question best captures his state of mind that day?
A dozen strangers stop to help him on a rural Missouri road, and Loretta lets him use her landline. How does that day complicate the idea that the world is full of threats? Would people stop where you live?
Dean reveals near the end that his “funk” was depression, and that the road trip was meant as therapy. Why do you think he held that until the end? Did the day help, despite going wrong?
Come Sail Away. Here the danger isn’t crime but bad company: fellow travelers who hog food, shade, and goodwill. Is a group of strangers you’re stuck with a real risk to a trip? How do you handle it?
The rough crossing to Puerto Barrios, under tarps with a wave towering over the boat, may be the most physically dangerous moment in the book. Yet it’s told almost as comedy. Why do you think Dean tells it that way?
A Bar Full of Strangers. Facing three months alone, Dean finds a community through a friend of a friend and a morning coffee group. How did strangers’ trust (renting him a house on one reference) set up his summer?
Hearing Dylan’s songs in other singers’ voices finally opens Dean’s ears. Has a new setting or interpreter ever changed your mind about something you’d written off?
Snap Decisions and Lemonade. In Tangier, Dean picks the wrong guide in a moment of fatigue. John and Theresa remember that parking-lot walk as dangerous; Dean doesn’t. Why might three people in the same situation read the risk so differently?
In Fez, a shady taxi driver who overcharged them leads them to Ahmed and one of the best days of their travels. What does this pairing of essays say about trust? Should a bad first impression always settle the matter?
Ahmed takes them to his family’s rug shop last, after they’ve spent money elsewhere, and even to a competitor. What do you make of that? How did it change how you saw him?
The book is candid about bargaining fatigue and the pressure to buy. Did these scenes make you more or less eager to visit Morocco?
Welcome to the War Zone! Dean and John go from pouring beer at a festival booth to attending a stranger’s mother’s wake in another country. Would you have accepted Manolo’s invitation? Why did they?
Dean feels guilty for being excited to call his own parents just after Manolo learns his mother has died. How do we hold our own joy alongside someone else’s grief?
At the wake, language limits and Craig’s early exit leave Dean feeling he let Manolo down, yet Manolo later thanks them. What does this say about how much simply showing up matters?

Part 5: The Cost of Obsessing About Safety

What We Lose · Climbing Taishan · Road Test

Dean argues that safety-first travel narrows our horizons: fear “moves the walls in closer.” What experiences might we lose by playing it safe? Can you name one you’ve lost?
He separates imagined or overhyped dangers from real ones. What practical tools does the book offer for telling them apart?
Climbing Taishan. Two independent travelers book a cheap escorted tour of China. What did the tour give them that independent travel wouldn’t have, and what did it take away? Where do you fall between tour groups and going it alone?
The tour’s constant stops at jade, silk, and carpet “superstores” echo the rug shops in Morocco. What’s the difference between being sold to and being shown something?
Walking up Taishan instead of taking the cable car, Dean feels connected to the strangers climbing with him, as if each step lifted everyone. Have you felt that kind of shared effort with people you couldn’t talk to?
After the climb, Dean says they felt more patient with the group. Why might a single break from the bubble make the bubble easier to live with?
Road Test. Dean confesses that while writing a book about irrational fear, he was anxious about a trip to Madagascar and southern Africa. Did that admission make the book more or less convincing to you?
Before the trip, his research painted Tana and Cape Town as dangerous. On arrival, the biggest danger in Cape Town turned out to be crossing the street on the “wrong” side. How do your expectations of a place compare with what you’ve found when you arrived?
Some of Dean’s discomfort doesn’t fade: the poverty he witnessed. He settles on small actions, like buying directly from makers and staying at locally owned places, while admitting there’s no perfect answer. How do you think about travel’s ethics in places with deep inequality?
Dean writes about aging, slower steps, and “creaky knees” before this trip. How does the book treat getting older as a reason to travel rather than a reason to stop?
The book ends with Dean asking John, “Wanna go to India?” Why end there? What does that last line say about where his fears stand now?

Closing questions

Which essay stayed with you most, and why? Which one would you hand to a friend who’s afraid to travel?
John appears in nearly every story. How would you describe him and Dean as traveling partners? What does the book show about traveling with someone you love?
Each essay opens with a quotation, from Camus and Helen Keller to Confucius and the Gospel of Matthew. Dean even notes that a few are of uncertain origin but kept them because he loved the sentiment. Which epigraph best fits its story? Does a quote’s authenticity matter?
The stories span more than twenty years, from 2001 to 2025, and aren’t in chronological order. Why do you think Dean organized them by theme instead? How did the order shape your reading?
Dean is candid about his own pettiness, impatience, and embarrassment. How did that honesty affect your trust in him as a narrator?
The subtitle calls trusting the world a “radical choice.” Is it radical? What would it take for you to make that choice on your next trip, or close to home?
Think of a place you’ve avoided because it seemed unsafe. After reading this book, would you reconsider? What would you want to know first?
If you wrote your own essay for this collection, which of the five sections would it belong in, and what would it be about?

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