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This is an unabashed contemporary thriller set in the northern reaches of Minnesota. It was written in 1999 and reviewing it over twenty years later, you and I know a few things that were not evident in 1999:
�� Krueger wrote more than a dozen Cork O’Connor books, so that no matter how dire the circumstances seem, Cork will prevail;
�� The book has won a number of “important�� awards;
�� The situation involving the "Anishinaabe" has changed little since then.

I like mysteries (and even thriller-mysteries) that are grounded in time and place. I have particularly enjoyed the authors (including Tony Hillerman, Craig Johnson and Peter Bowen) who have written about the boundaries between the Native Americans and white American communities. Krueger can hold his own in this company. The following quotations should give you a sense of the plot and what he brings to this genre:

"The judge was dead. Paul LeBeau had vanished—onto the reservation, Cork would bet—with his father. The Windigo had called Lytton’s name. And someone had broken into Sam’s Place. On the surface, there was nothing, really, to connect any of these things. Still, they were extraordinary in a place like Aurora, and they’d happened within an extraordinarily short time."

"“Cork, promise me something.�� “What?�� “You won’t do anything that’ll get you hurt.�� “I’m not what you’d call a brave man,�� he assured her. She sighed, her breath making the hair at the back of his neck shiver. “Maybe not, but you’re stubborn, and that’s just as bad.��"

Cork is Corcoran O'Connor. He is the recent sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota, a small town in the northern hinterlands right near an Anishinaabe reservation. He made a mistake as sheriff and it cost him his job and his self-respect and he has been on a downward spiral for several years that has resulted in him being separated from his wife, a prominent local lawyer, and his children. He is part Native American and has some of that lore and culture from his grandmother. He also has had close relationships in the community.

"Cork had no business looking at the body, no business thinking about the case at all. But an Ojibwe boy was missing and Henry Meloux was sure that a Windigo was about," You will learn about the Windigo and how the case changes his life. ��(H)e uncovered the box he’d put there over a year ago. It was the size of a large dictionary and nearly as heavy. He lifted the lid. Inside was a Smith & Wesson .38 Police Special, a belt and holster, and a box of cartridges. He put them away after he’d killed Arnold Stanley. He’d believed he would never use them again. But like so much about his life, it appeared he might be wrong."

But in doing so he has a lot to overcome: "“Do you believe in God?��
(the priest) St. Kawasaki looked amused. “Hell of a question to ask a priest.��
Cork carefully watched the end of his rod, a spring device that acted as a bobber. It hadn’t moved at all in the time he’d been there.
“I’m asking because I’ve been a cop most of my life, but I don’t believe in justice anymore. I just wondered if the same was true in your work.��"

I am trying to avoid any spoilers, so I will end here by saying I am “into�� Cork and the town of Aurora and northern Minnesota sufficiently that I will be devoting time to this series in the future.