Manitou Canyon – William Kent Krueger as Good as Ever!

Manitou Canyon – William Kent Krueger (Cork O’Connor series Boo #15)

Manitou Canyon is the fifteenth book in the Cork O’Connor series from William Kent Krueger. And I for one don’t think the series is slowing down at all! I have read all of the books in this series and this one holds its own with any of them.While the Cork O’Connor books are firmly planted in the  mystery.thriller genre they are also more than just mysteries. They are also books about family and cultural identity. Read More

Ordinary Grace – William Kent Krueger

Ordinary Grace – William Kent Krueger – Not an Ordinary book – an extraordinary book!

So while I have not posted much over the last few days, I have finished three books. Finished first was William Kent Krueger’s Ordinary Grace, which was closely followed up by The Forgotten Room from Lincoln Child. Then today, I finished The Toaster Oven Mocks Me by Steve Margolis. Two novels and a personal memoir, all very good. In this post I will write about the first book Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. William Kent Krueger is the author of the Cork O’Connor series set in northern Minnesota. I am a big fan of those novels. Read More

Windigo Island – William Kent Krueger

Windigo Island-  William Kent Krueger – (Cork O’Connor # 14)

William Kent Krueger - Windigo Island authorI started reading the Cork O’Connor series from William Kent Krueger back in 2003 when I picked up Purgatory Ridge, Book #3 in the series, at the library. After finishing the book I quickly sought out the first two books in the series and have not missed a book since!! Cork O’ Connor is the former sheriff of Tamarack County, Minnesota, he is part Ojibwe and Irish. He is also the father of Jennie, Annie and Stephen O’Connor and is constantly battling evil in the County and beyond. Cork uses all the forces that he can gather to fight the evil, that includes the powers of his spiritual mentor Henry Meloux. In Windigo Island Cork and Henry battle a Windigo both the mythical and the rel versions! From Goodreads.com…. Read More

Book 30 – Northwest Angle – William Kent Krueger

So you know I love books that take mw to places I’ll never see or teach me things I didn’t know and Book 30 of 2011 Northwest Angle is one of them. Author William Kent Krueger set this book the 11th in the Cork O’Connor series in the area of Minnesota known as the Northwest Angle. This pennisula juts into the Lake of the Woods and is the farthest point north in the lower 48 states. You can not reach this piece of the United States by land without going through Canada! It can of course be reach by air or water, and by by water is how the O’Connor clan got there. As the novel begins Cork O’Connor has brought his family together daughters Jenny and Anne and son Stephen and his sister-in-law Rose and husband Mal to the Lake of the Woods on a houseboat for a restful family vacation. On the day Jenny’s boyfriend Aaron is set to arrive, Cork takes Jenny on a side trip to an island he once visited with his spiritual guide Henry Meloux. The island has pictographs of Ojibwe children on the cliffs of the island. But soon the day turns tragic as an unexpexted “Derecho” hits the area. A derecho is another thing that I didn’t know about. It is a powerful storm a bowed line of thunderstorms with wind speeds of a hurricane and causes massive destruction. A derecho hit the Northwest Angle area in July of 1999 you can read about it here. Soon Cork and Jenny are seperated and Jenny lands on an island and finds shelter after the storm she finds a cabin that has been mostly destroyed by the storm a young mother lies dead in the cabin a search of the cabin reveals Read More

Vermilion Drift – William Kent Krueger

It’s been a busy day at the College of William and Mary a nice luncheon on the grounds near the Wren Building and the President’s House and then a rout of Villanova that turned into a nail biter that ended ok as W&M won 31-24! So there was not a lot of time for music, but I did finish Book 35 last night William Kent Krueger’s latest Vermilion Drift. This is one of my favorite series. The books all ways have much more than just a mystery in them as Krueger explores the complexities of life through Cork O’Connor. The story opens with Cork being hired by Max Cavanaugh the owner of  Vermilion One a mine that the government is considering as a nuclear waste deposit site, hiring Cork to find his missing sister Lauren. Cork has also been called in by the mine officials to investigate  threats against the owners of the mine. Soon forty year old bodies are found in the Vermilion Drift (horizontal mine shafts)and they lead back to The Vanishings that occurred on the reservation forty years ago and the solution to the murders leads Cork to explore his past! Read More