Review by Booklist Review
As Aurora, Minnesota, readies for a picture-perfect white Christmas, Cork O'Connor, the former sheriff, searches for a missing boy. The disappearance seems family related; a death the same afternoon appears to be a suicide. Cork's friend Henry Meloux, an elderly Ojibwa medicine man, blames the legendary Windigo, "an ogre with a heart of ice" that "comes out of the woods to eat the flesh of men and women," for the events. Cork finds a criminal mastermind behind the death and disappearance, in the process straining relations with his children and divorced wife and with the factions in a region suddenly rich from gambling run by Native Americans. Krueger's debut offers wonderful characters and makes the woods and waters vivid, wild, and menacing. Realistic details and political deals do not slow a tense, fast pace punctuated with humor and surprise in a book that is sure to appeal to fans of Nevada Barr and Tony Hillerman. This is mystery as allegory--the Windigo is alive and well in America, in stalkers, stupid spouses, and ruthless politicians. --John Rowen
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Short-story specialist Krueger brings a fresh take on some familiar elements and a strong sense of atmosphere to his first mystery. Chicago cop Cork O'Connor and his wife, Jo, a lawyer, moved back to his northern Minnesota hometown of Aurora to improve their quality of life, but it didn't work. Cork became the sheriff but lost an election after a disagreement between local Indians and whites over fishing rights turned deadly. Then his marriage broke up, with Jo becoming a successful advocate for tribal rights and Cork reduced to running a scruffy restaurant and gift shop. As the book starts, Cork, feeling guilty about sleeping with a warmhearted waitress, is still hoping to get back with Jo and their three children. Drawn into the disappearance of an Indian newsboy, which coincides with the apparent suicide of a former judge, Cork quickly clashes with some well-connected foes: a newly elected senator (who also happens to be the judge's son and Jo's lover); the town's new sheriff; and some tribal leaders getting rich on gambling concessions. When an old Indian tells Cork that a Windigo (a malign spirit) is fueling events, it becomes an occasion for Krueger to draw some nifty connections between the monsters of the heart and the monsters of myth. Krueger makes Cork a real person beneath his genre garments, mostly by showing him dealing with the needs of his two very different teenage daughters. And the author's deft eye for the details of everyday life brings the town and its peculiar problems to vivid life. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In Krueger's first mystery after a spate of short stories, former sheriff Cork O'Connor deals with a missing boy, a dead judge, and a Minnesota blizzard. Some very strong prepublication reviews (e.g., "the author's deft eye...brings the town and its problem to vivid life," Publishers Weekly) sent this book spinning, and it won some praise from the consumer press as well. It also popped up a few times on LJ's "1999 Adult Book-Buying Survey Among Librarians" as a local title that circulated especially well. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Cork O'Connor is a man beset with troubles, some of them of his own making. But he's a bend-not-break man: an admirable man. And he needs to be, for it's winter in hardscrabble Aurora, Minnesota. The blizzard that buries the small lakeside town also buries some ugly things with it. Like nasty secretsand brutal murder. So here's Cork, who used to be sheriff, who used to have a wife who loved him, who used to have a purpose to his life, sort of stumbling into situations that bewilder him to the nth. There's the apparent suicide of Judge Parrant. Suicide? Judge Parrant? Not that cantankerous old misogynist. There's also a missing boy, a good and responsible boy, with no reason in the world for him to have run away. Then there are the murky goings-on over at the casino, where gambling is producing so much wealth for the Native American population that they've begun calling it ``the new buffalo.'' And finally, there's the windigo, a spirit so malevolent that it can unnerve even those who don't actually believe in it. Almost despite himself, Cork is soon behaving like the lawman he no longer is, looking for answers that are very hard to find. And yet he does find some. Some of those he discovers, though, he soon wishes he hadn't. Minnesotan Krueger has a sense of place hes plainly honed firsthand in below-zero prairie. His characters, too, sport charm and dimension, although things start to get a bit shaky toward books end. Still, this first-timers stamina and self-assurance suggest that O'Connors got staying power.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
