Discount Price: $7.99
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9781416514473
ISBN number: 1416514473
Label: Pocket
Manufacturer: Pocket
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: June 24, 2008
Publishing house: Pocket
Sale Popularity Level: 21571
Studio: Pocket
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
From acclaimed author William Kent Krueger comes the seventh profound, action-packed suspense novel in his award-winning Cork O'Conner mystery series.
The promise, as I remember it, happened this way.
Happy and content in his hometown of Aurora, Minnesota, Cork O'Connor has left his badge behind and is ready for a life of relative peace, setting up shop as a private investigator. But his newfound state of calm is soon interrupted when Henry Meloux, the Ojibwe medicine man and Cork's spiritual adviser, makes a request: Will Cork find the son that Henry fathered long ago?
With little to go on, Cork uses his investigative skills to locate Henry Wellington, a wealthy and reclusive industrialist living in Thunder Bay, Ontario. When a murder endeavor is made on old Meloux's life, all clues point north across the border. But why would Wellington want his father dead? This question takes Cork on a journey through time as he unravels the story of Meloux's 1920s adventure in the ore-rich wilderness of Canada, where his love for a beautiful woman, far outside his culture, led him into a trap of treachery, greed, and murder.
The past and present collide along the rocky shores of Thunder Bay, where a father's unconditional love is tested by a son's deeply felt resentment, and where jealousy and revenge remain the code among men. As Cork hastens to uncover the truth and save his friend, he soon discovers that his own life is in danger and is reminded that the promises we keep - even for the best of friends - can sometimes place us in the hands of our worst enemies.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Corcoran O'Conner is facing parallel situations: in both of them, there is the old story of `boy meets girl - they fall in love - and a baby ensues' However, the differences between them are that one situation took place 70+ years ago between his adopted `uncle' while the other is taking place right now and involves his daughter. In addition to balancing these two, he is also balancing his life between his hamburger stand in the north woods of Minnesota, his past life as the local sheriff, and his wife's career as a lawyer.
This is a mystery thriller so we quickly get drawn into the affairs of his 90+ year old `uncle' (Henry Meloux) and only get occasional glimpses into the current affairs of his daughter and her boyfriend. Meloux has been a father figure to Cork, and so when Meloux is admitted to the hospital because of unspecified problems, Cork rushes over to be told that he needs to find Meloux's son. Cork is given a vague location of somewhere in Canada, and a gold watch that has a picture of a woman in it. Meloux tells his story to Cork and it is a love affair that blossomed briefly between Meloux and a young woman named Maria in the far Canadian woods as Maria's father and an associate searched for gold. When Maria's father finds out about the love affair, he is furious and that is the last that Henry sees or hears of Maria. However, now Meloux has visions that tell him that he had a son by Maria and that son needs his help.
As contrived as this plot may seem, the author manages to pull it off by having his laconic hero start investigating and unravel the story and what transpired in the 73 years between the love affair and the current situation. There are plenty of interesting twists and turns to this story as there are plots within the plot and each of the characters seems to have a double life going on. Nothing is as straightforward as it seems and it is no surprise that many of the people we meet have hidden agendas and follows their own paths.
I was struck by a couple of ironies that bear mention: the very first is that when Cork goes to Canada on his last visit, he brings a rifle and comments on how sensible the Canadians are about firearms - they dislike them. However, the final part of the story is an orgy of violence and bloodletting where each actor has hand guns, rifles, and ammunition galore. The body count gets as high as five people in one wild shooting spree - in Canada! The second main irony is that when Henry tells his story of how he met Maria he is airlifted to the Canadian north. In a seaplane. He has no trouble recounting how he pulled on the propeller to start the motor - not once, but twice. However, given the timelines of Henry's life, that must have taken place in the 1920's which did not have too many people flying around in seaplanes! Let alone own one!!
Putting these ironies aside as minor issues, I enjoyed reading this book and thought that the plot was reasonable, reasonably complex, and that the way it ended was acceptably heartwarming. This is clearly part of a series of mysteries or thrillers featuring O'Connor but it can be read as a stand alone book with no problems. I enjoyed this book and hope you will as well.
Rated by buyers 
-
Another Krueger hit. An excellent character study with an appropriate amount of action and romance.
Rated by buyers -
I always feel like I've just returned from a visit to Northern Minnesota when I finish a Cork O'Connor book.
Loved Thunder Bay! Sat down to read for awhile yesterday evening and read the entire book from cover to cover before heading for bed.
WKK's character descriptions are so good I feel that I know these people -I'm not just reading about them. His descriptions of the North Woods make me feel like I'm on that trail, in that canoe, climbing that rocky cliff, driving down that dusy road!
Really, really liked reading Henry's story. I've always loved Henry, now I feel like I know him.
I always look forward to the subsequent book - they just keep getting better and better - and hope that WKK continues to write about Cork and his family for many years to come.
Rated by buyers -
Can't wait until September when his new book comes out. His books get better and better, being from MN and having traveled up the north shore to Thunder Bay it was so exciting to read about things we had seen. You won't regret reading any of his books
Rated by buyers -
Full disclosure here; Krueger and I often travel together, we're friends and I'm a great admirer of his writing. I'm talking about the award winning Cork O'Connor series, of which this is the sixth. So, readers of this review should be forewarned.
This is a dynamite novel, although not as powerful, perhaps as the previous Mercy Falls. In this latest, the author has reconnected Cork to his family and his roots, that is, Aurora Minnesota, somewhere up in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. He's trying to leave law enforcement to others, organizing a small-town business as a restraunteer in the summer with a little private snooping on the side and in the slow months.
Of course, old friends present new challenges. Henry Meloux, long-time friend, resident Ojibwe medicine man of uncertain age is hospitalized with what appears to be serious heart trouble. Near death, Meloux prevails on Cork to try to find Meloux's son, whom no one in Aurora or on the Reservation had known existed.
So what we have here is a moving and sensitive tale of youthful love, lust and loss in which Krueger ably examines racial, class and generational conflicts. He does so within the fabric of a swiftly paced, rousing adventure that spans international boundaries and several decades. The novel is competently written and the themes of a man searching for another's offspring play out effectively against his own family relationships.
Find other books like this one:
