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Northwest Angle: A Cork O'Connor Mystery
Summary
During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm.
Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper's cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl. She wasn't killed by the storm, however; she'd been bound and tortured before she died. Whimpering sounds coming from outside the cabin lead them to a tangle of branches toppled by the vicious winds. Underneath the debris, they find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive.
Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle, where it's impossible to tell who among the residents is in league with the devil. Cork understands that to save his family he must solve the puzzle of this mysterious child whom death follows like a shadow.
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Reviews
For the last book in the O'Connor series, I made a comment in my review that while I enjoyed the book, I was disappointed that the story did not feature any other members of Cork's family. Well for this book, Cork's entire family plays a role from the first page to the last and I was excited for it. Krueger has really figured out a style of writing that perfectly blends plot, characters, and setting in a way that I truly enjoy. Highly recommended series.
Another great book by Krueger. His writing is always so beautiful and I love the native Ojibwa wisdom and spiritual messages that run through his books. In this book detective Cork O'Connor must solve the murder of a young girl who has recently had a baby. Jenny, Cork's daughter, becomes attached to the baby but death seems to follow the child and Cork is determined to find out why. The author's characters always feel so real and his descriptions of the settings make you feel like you are there. The plot begins with a bang and kept my interest all the way through with plenty of action and suspense. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and I highly recommend this series to those who love mystery and adventure.
Good read, and liked the Lake of the Woods setting.
When the O'Connor's go on a family trip things go very wrong.
I didn't find the twist very surprising.
I didn't find the twist very surprising.
Good entry for an excellent series. William Krueger continues to explore the wild and beautiful lands of Northern Minnesota and the intriguing culture of the Anishinaabe Tribal world. Strong characters are made stronger as his children mature and step forward in his plot casting. He uses a derecho storm, as a starting point as it blasts its way through an intended idyllic lake cruise, to pitch Cork and his family into danger and a compelling mystery.
I like the cork o Connor series. Although I enjoy the reader of his earlier books more. This one is good but I felt as if he was reading to a child. Intonations? Not sure but..... as usual good story
Much of the action in this book takes place away from the usual Aurora, Minnesota setting. Cork and his family are in Lake of the Woods, a large lake between Ontario and Minnesota that contains 14,552 islands. Cork and Jenny are out traveling in a small boat when a violent wind (known as derecho) sweeps through, leaving chaos and devastation in its wake and Cork and Jenny stranded on a small island. Jenny finds a cabin on the island that contains the body of a young woman who has been murdered, and a tiny baby hidden away. Before rescue can come an unknown man with a rifle arrives on the island.
I had begun to worry that I would get bored with Cork and Jenny stuck on an island for most of the book. I should have trusted the author better by now. He doesn’t let the story slow or become stagnant, but gradually builds suspense to its natural explosive conclusion. I liked how the author bookended the story with Cork’s original concern about his family, and the reaffirmation of that family at the end.
I had begun to worry that I would get bored with Cork and Jenny stuck on an island for most of the book. I should have trusted the author better by now. He doesn’t let the story slow or become stagnant, but gradually builds suspense to its natural explosive conclusion. I liked how the author bookended the story with Cork’s original concern about his family, and the reaffirmation of that family at the end.
In the 11th installment of the Cork O’Connor series, Cork takes his extended family for vacation on a houseboat on the Lake of the Woods. The plot is set in motion when a powerful storm, a derecho, shatters their plans. Cork and his daughter, Jenny, find themselves on an isolated island where they discover a cabin with the body of a woman who had been tortured and, hidden nearby, a baby. Then a man with a rifle comes to stalk them. Is he the killer of the woman seeking to cover his tracks? Is he after the baby that Cork and Jennie have rescued? Is there more? Of course there is: drug smuggling, a religious cult, Jenny’s bond with the baby and its effects on her fraught relationship with her boyfriend Noah and with Cork. The book delivers what I have come to expect from this excellent series: good plotting, vivid descriptions of minor characters, Ojibwe lore, evolving family relationships and the wonderful and wise Ojibwe Mide, Henry. In addition, threaded through this book is a discourse on the nature of religion. I am on to the next in the series, Trickster’s Point.
During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm. Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper's cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl. She wasn't killed by the storm, however; she'd been bound and tortured before she died. Whimpering sounds coming from outside the cabin lead them to a tangle of branches toppled by the vicious winds. Underneath the debris, they find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive.
William Kent Kreuger's mystery series featuring Cork O'Connor seemed, in my mind, to start out relatively slowly. I felt that it wasn't until his fourth or fifth book that he really hit his stride. I'm very thankful that I had bought up his complete series before beginning to read them (based on an enthusiastic review I read of a later book).. otherwise I might have given up on the series early on and missed some really great stories. And in hindsight even the early books have a great deal to offer. The novels are set in rural, northern Minnesota for the most part with the action shifting to The U.P. of Michigan in one story and to Wyoming in another. Mr. Kreuger gives Cork O'Connor a family life that is anything but 'storybook'. From one end to the other this is a loving, but modern family, with real life modern problems that they do manage to get resolved. Fairly early in the series, the stories begin increasingly encompassing Cork's and his family's Native American connection to good advantage!This is a very good and satisfying series which I gobbled up faster and faster towards the end. Now I have to sit and eagerly await the next Cork O'Connor adventure. This is a series where the books could be read as stand alones, but for maximum enjoyment I would strongly recommend reading them in the order that they were written.
I believe this is the 11th book in the series. I've read the first 3 and the last 2. I think I am starting to get a bit bored with the series. I found this book rather lame. Cork and family are vacationing in the NWA when a violent storm blows through unsettling lives and the landscape. Cork and daughter Jenny discover a newborn baby and a dead body on a small deserted island. Suddenly they are being hunted (we are now at the 40% point in the book), some excitement and tension, but tons of description of the Lake of the Woods area. OK, then the good guys go after the hunter, and discover a band of Avenging God believers, and the identity of the hunter helped by a local deputy and a retired ATF(?) employee, one of whom is a secret bad guy. Everybody wants the baby though its not clear why, and even reflecting back after having finished the book, it's still not clear why. Anyway Cork is out to solve everything but can't seem to shake The Family. They are everywhere. Family members are being captured, held hostage, held hostage again, offering advice to the police, etc, and preaching a good bit about faith in each other and in God. A bit too Ozzie and Harriet for my taste. A happy ending of course, except for the ex-fiance.
I have read the Cork O’Connor series in chronological order over the last several years and by extension, have watched his family grow and develop. The previous book, “Vermillion Drift” was missing something and until reading this book, I wasn’t sure what it was. Krueger once again relies heavily on the family aspect and we see Cork’s kids as young adults. Rose and her husband Mal are also present.” Vermillion Drift” with the absence of family now works better for me in hind sight as a transitional work following Cork’s arc into his middle 50s and preparing (possibly) to move on after his wife’s death. “Northwest Angle” describes the beautiful country of the Lake of the Woods very well as well as the freak storm conditions that actually passed through the area several years ago. Excellent fast read that makes me want more.
NORTHWEST ANGLE by William Kent Krueger, the next book in his Cork O’Conner series, is a great thriller, maybe the best in the series. OK, so far I’ve read only two books in the series. But it’s still true: this book is a grabber.The O’Conner family, including Cork’s sister-in-law and her husband, are vacationing on a houseboat in the Northwest Angle. While Cork and his daughter Jenny are taking a smaller boat to pick up Jenny’s boyfriend, a violent windstorm (Derecho) blows Cork overboard and strands Jenny on one of about 1000 islands in the Northwest Angle. While Jenny searches for shelter, she finds a baby boy and the body of his mother. She had been tortured and murdered. And the murderer wants that baby.Where would this book series be without Cork, right? Somehow, he makes it back to Jenny. Now the two of them do their best to avoid the murderer’s bullets and keep themselves and that baby alive.Eventually, the whole family gets involved in the quest to save that baby and keep themselves safe from the murderer. It’s an edge-of-your-seat thriller—even after Jenny, along with her brother and boyfriend, takes the baby to their all-knowing old Indian friend, the medicine man Henry. Henry is a recurring character in this book series.It makes sense to take the baby to Henry. He lives deep in the woods in Tamarack County, far from where the murderer might find the baby. But I expected the action to slow and the story to get corny at this point, with Henry’s usual secretiveness and Indian ceremonies. But, even though it’s a little corny when Henry seems to EXPECT Jenny’s arrival and when his niece, who wants to become a medicine man, herself, comes up with a magic brew for Jenny, the action doesn’t stop or pause here. Instead, they find that they can’t hide. And Henry comes across more as a wonderful old man than as a magic Indian. (I do wonder, though, how his guests, particularly the baby, could have slept outside without being eaten up by mosquitoes. They are, after all, in a woods in Minnesota. I think too much.)While this is going on, Cork is still in the Northwest Angle investigating a group of religious fanatics who live on one of the islands there. He becomes curious about them when they are questioned about the baby’s murdered mother, who used to live on the island with them. They seem to be not entirely forthcoming, and Cork wonders if they are hiding something.What a great thriller this is, marred only by the corny way Henry solves matters for all involved. That includes, even, the Tamarack County police when he ends a hostage situation by holding his hands over fire and daring someone else to do the same.In spite of Henry, THE NORTHWEST ANGLE has convinced me to find the earlier books in the series. I already read two and found a third. You’ll probably want to do the same.I won this book from Atria Books' Friday Giveaeway Facebook contest. This is an honest review.
After all that has happened in the last two years, Cork decides to take his O’Connor brood on a trip to the Northwest Angle, a clutter of 14,000 islands between Minnesota and Canada. This brood includes Rose, Cork’s sister-in-law, and her husband Mal. While showing his oldest daughter, Jennifer, an island Henry Meloux had introduced to Cork in his youth, they stumble onto an abandoned cabin containing the body of a young woman. Outside in a basket is an infant just weeks old. The point of view jumps from Cork to Jenny or Rose since each is in a different location after a storm separates them. It is difficult for Cork and Jenny to get off the island after a furious storm wrecks their boat and armed men return to the island obviously looking for something or someone. A religious cult inhabits another of the islands and it appears they are practicing more than religion. This installment is more about Rose and her husband Mal, a former priest. This family reunion seems like a religious sabbatical as many references to religion are made. A number of times it is mentioned how Rose and Mal had always wanted to have a baby but it just wasn’t in the cards so when it came to finding a home for the abandoned infant, I was surprised that it wasn’t Rose and Mal who ended up adopting him. Jenny’s boyfriend joins the family late and it is clear he and Jenny are having problems. Cork isn’t sure who to trust and once the baby’s father is located, the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place. I was thrilled when Henry’s niece, Rainy, makes an appearance after her introduction in the previous book. She appears to be bonding with Cork’s family as well as Cork himself. Krueger has always been one of the best at sense of place as well as weaving Native American culture into his series. As with his past books, he doesn’t disappoint.
I am a huge fan of crime stories, full of mystery, police officers and detectives that have to find the murderer, and that they use different methods for getting out the truth. So when I saw this book it caught my attention immediately.This is the first novel I read by William Kent Krueger, so I didn't know anything about his writing style, and logically this is the first novel in the Cork O'Connor series I read, so at the first time I didn't know the characters (This is the twelfth book in the series) but the good thing about the story is that you end up knowing all the characters, their relationships and a little bit about their story, so you can read it as stand-alone book. The plot at the beginning is surprising and unusual, especially because the first part of the story takes place on an island, where the main characters Cork and his daughter Jenny find in a cabin a murdered woman and an abandoned baby. And suddenly they find themselves in an extreme situation of live-and-death. I admit that I loved that part and that I really enjoyed it, and also when the author shows us some customs and words of the Native Americans of that specific zone, like the Ojibwe. But after some pages, that originality starts decreasing and the plot ends up becoming into something predictable and boring. In particular those scenes with Jenny and the baby, which at the very first moment were very sweet, but then they became repetitive and predictable; with all the characters repeating all the time that she needed to give the baby to the authorities, etc.I enjoyed this book, is not the best, but you can try it and maybe you'll like it better. The story is good, but I was waiting for something more stunning and not a drama about children, family relations and religion with just a little bit of mystery. However, I really liked Krueger's writing style, so I hope to read something else by this author.
William Kent Krueger has developed another fine novel in "Northwest Angle." This is a story with picturesque settings, a suspenseful plot that is unpredictable and a message about life.Cork O'Connor takes his family on vacation on a houseboat. When a story develops, Cork and his elder daughter, Jenny, are separated from the other membersof the family. They end up on one of the many islands on the Lake of The Woods in Minnesota, on the U.S. Canadian border.Jenny arrives first and hears the faint whimper of a baby. Later, she discovers a body of a young woman who had been murdered. The woman showed signs of torture and Jenny assumes that the woman was the baby's mother.As Jenny and Cork ponder their rescue, they wonder who killed the girl and what to do if the killer returns.Not only a mystery, this is a story of good against evil. Cork's sister-in-law, Rosa and her husband have a strong faith but there are a number of times that these characters and others have to question that faith and God's purpose in what was happening in the story.The story is rich in American Indian history. Cork is part Ojibwe and can relate to other American Indians, however, Cork's son, Stephen, demonstrates his spirituality and communication ability wonderfully. The other American Indians seem to feel his spirituality and love of Indian history and traditions.I read the story compulsively and enjoyed the well described characters while wondering how they would escape their situation. The twis the author provided, added to the intelligence of the story and the satisfaction with the conclusion.