Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger

As I mentioned in the previous post, I read Iron Lake in 2017 and had every intention of continuing this series by William Kent Kreuger--but didn't.  The old adage in the reading world:  "So many books; so little time."

When I saw Spirit Crossing offered on NetGalley, I was pleased to have the opportunity to read more by Kreuger.  As it turned out, the book was even better than expected, and I was delighted to reconnect with Cork O'Connor and his family and friends.  

When the daughter of a white politician goes missing, everyone is involved, from local and state police to the FBI.  The same has not been true for a young Objibwe woman...or other Native American women.

When on a day of picking blueberries, Cork's young grandson  discovers a shallow grave, law enforcement descends on the site anticipating the possibility that the politician's daughter has been found.  Cork's young grandson Waaboo (his Obibwe name given by Henry Meloux), however, insists that the body is that of an Objibwe woman and that she is lost.  Crystal Two Knives has been missing for a while, and they wonder if they've found Crystal. 

As it turns out, the body is that of a Native American woman, but not Crystal Two Knives and not the politicians daughter.  The unidentified Native American woman creates little interest in those searching for the politician's daughter.  

Cork's heritage is mixed, and he is part Objibwe and the fact that his grandson has visions doesn't surprise him, but it does concern him.  When Waaboo's visions put him in danger, Cork and his family's concern escalates.

Spirit Crossing's strength lies in Kreuger's prose, his characters, and his adept plotting, as well as the way Kreuger illustrates cultural problems.

Highly recommended; however, I recommend beginning with the first books in the series to become familiar with the characters.   

Because the characters I remembered from Iron Lake (bk 1) had grown so much in the interim, I took my own belated advice and read the second and third in the series and reviewed them in the previous post.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books

Boundary Waters and Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger

In 2017, I read Iron Lake by William Kent Kreuger.  At the time, I planned to continue the series, but never got around to it.

When I saw Spirit Crossing, the latest Cork O'Connor book on NetGalley, it was a reminder that I had never read the intervening books.  Spirit Crossing was excellent, and I have a review scheduled for later.  However, so much had happened in between Iron Lake and Spirit Crossing--I had missed so much of the lives and events of the characters.

It behooved me to go back and read book 2, Boundary Waters.  Good move, although I do wish I'd done it when I finished the first book.  

Boundary Waters has former sheriff Cork O'Connor of Aurora, Minnesota, living and working in the burger stand he inherited from his friend Sam Winter Moon.  When the father of a missing young woman comes to him for help, Cork reluctantly agrees to look for Shiloh, a country singer on the rise who has taken temporary refuge somewhere in the Boundary Waters.  Shiloh enlisted Wendell Two Knives to lead her into the wilderness where she planned to come to terms with her problems with drugs and alcohol and to some extent, the murder of her mother when she was a child, which still gives her nightmares. 

But there are others searching for Shiloh.  Two million acres of wilderness, weather, and someone wants to get to her before Cork and his crew.  Cork's main advantage is Louis, a young boy who had been to the cabin where Wendell Two Knives had taken Shiloh.  Without Louis, there would be no way to locate the young woman.  The bad guys are following them and don't mind leaving bodies along the way

I enjoyed it so much that I went straight into bk 3.

In northern Minnesota, among the vast wilderness of forests, is a stand of ancient great white pines called Our Grandfathers by the Ojibwe. When lumber mill owner Karl Lindstrom expects to gain the rights to cut them, he has both the Ojibwe and eco-activists protesting.

A few of the activists have reputations for criminal behaviors to stop logging in other areas, and when a bomb explodes in Lindstrom's mill killing an Ojibwe elder, the tensions grow on both sides.  Then someone calling himself Eco-Warrior claims credit for the bomb.

In a blended thread John LePere, the lone survivor of the sinking of the Alfred M. Teasdale in Lake Superior, has his own obsession.  When someone suggests that the sinking was deliberate, he finds himself wanting revenge.

The situations escalate in different ways involving past and present events, a kidnapping, and a forest fire.  

By the time, Spirit Crossing is published in August, I hope to have read more of the early books.  

For those who love writers whose writing draws you in, whose characters are complex, and whose plots keep you involved, I recommend Krueger's Cork O'Connor series.