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Iron Lake: A Cork O'Connor Mystery

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Overview

Cork O'Connor is the former sheriff of a small Minnesota town. When the town's judge is brutally murdered and an Eagle Scout is reported missing, Cork takes on the case.

Editorial Reviews

Short-story specialist Krueger brings a fresh take on some familiar elements and a strong sense of atmosphere to his first mystery. Chicago cop Cork O'Connor and his wife, Jo, a lawyer, moved back to his northern Minnesota hometown of Aurora to improve their quality of life, but it didn't work. Cork became the sheriff but lost an election after a disagreement between local Indians and whites over fishing rights turned deadly. Then his marriage broke up, with Jo becoming a successful advocate for tribal rights and Cork reduced to running a scruffy restaurant and gift shop. As the book starts, Cork, feeling guilty about sleeping with a warmhearted waitress, is still hoping to get back with Jo and their three children. Drawn into the disappearance of an Indian newsboy, which coincides with the apparent suicide of a former judge, Cork quickly clashes with some well-connected foes: a newly elected senator (who also happens to be the judge's son and Jo's lover); the town's new sheriff; and some tribal leaders getting rich on gambling concessions. When an old Indian tells Cork that a Windigo (a malign spirit) is fueling events, it becomes an occasion for Krueger to draw some nifty connections between the monsters of the heart and the monsters of myth. Krueger makes Cork a real person beneath his genre garments, mostly by showing him dealing with the needs of his two very different teenage daughters. And the author's deft eye for the details of everyday life brings the town and its peculiar problems to vivid life. (Aug.) -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of William Kent Krueger

William Kent Krueger is the award-winning author of nine Cork O'Connor novels, including Thunder Bay, Red Knife, and the upcoming Heaven's Keep. All are available from Atria Books. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family. Visit his website at www.williamkentkrueger.com.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Atria

Filesize

698.53 KB

Number of Pages

584

eBook ISBN

9780671036904

Awards

  • Anthony Award
  • Dilys Award
  • Minnesota Book Awards

Excerpt from: Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger

CORK O'CONNOR first heard the story of the Windigo in the fall of 1965 when he hunted the big bear with Sam Winter Moon. He was fourteen and his father was dead a year.

Sam Winter Moon had set a bear trap that autumn along a deer trail that ran from the stream called Widow's Creek to an old logged-over area full of blueberries. He'd found scat at the creek and along the trail and in the blueberry meadow when the berries were ripe. The trap was made as it had been in old times. Against a tree, Sam built a narrow enclosure of branches with a single opening. Over the entrance he suspended a heavy log secured to a spring pole. The trap was baited with a mash of cooked fish, fish oils, and a little maple syrup. It was the first time Sam had ever built a bear trap -- a nearly lost Ojibwe tradition -- and he'd invited Cork to help him with the process. Cork had no interest in it. Since his father's death, nothing interested him. He figured Sam's invitation had nothing to do with both of them learning the old ways together. It was just another good-intentioned effort to make him forget his grief, something Corcoran O'Connor didn't want to do. In a way, he was afraid that to let go of the grieving would be to let go of his father forever. Still, out of politeness, he accepted Sam Winter Moon's offer.

Late in the afternoon, they found the trap sprung, but the bear was not in it. They could see where the animal had fallen, slammed down by the weight of the great log, which, when they'd hauled and set it, Sam had calculated at over three hundred pounds. The log should have broken the bear's back. Any normal black bear should have been there for them, pinned under the log, dead or almost dead. The trap was sprung. The log had fallen. But the bear had shrugged it off.

Sam Winter Moon turned to the boy gravely. "I expect it's hurt," he said. "I got to go after it."

He looked away from Cork and didn't say anything about the boy going.

"A bear like that," Cork said, "a bear that can bounce a tree off his back, he'd be worth seeing."