Northwest Angle

Starred review from June 20, 2011
In Krueger's superb 11th novel featuring Cork O'Conner (after Vermilion Drift), the PI and his grown daughter, Jenny, get stranded by a gale on an island in Minnesota's Northwest Angle, an area of the state cut off from the U.S. by 60 miles of Canadian wilderness and the vast Lake of the Woods. Separated from Cork by the storm, Jenny discovers the naked body of a young Native American woman, who was tortured before being shot in the forehead, and her dehydrated but alive infant son. Once reunited, Cork and Jenny tend to the baby while hiding from a stranger in a cigarette boat. Once rescued, Cork teams with local residents to find out who killed the woman, Lily Smalldog, who worked at a remote religious compound. Solid storytelling and intriguing characterizations combine for a sobering look at the power of family and faith and Native American culture. Krueger never writes the same book twice as each installment finds him delving deeper into Cork's psyche.