Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger

#20 in the Cork O’Connor series set in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota by the prolific and award-winning William Kent Krueger. He also presents several standalone novels to considerable acclaim. Cork is mostly retired but still available to help local law enforcement, be it state or tribal, when needed or when trouble finds him. 

The daughter of a State Senator has gone missing, last seen in the north woods around Lake Superior. Th search for her cross nearly every jurisdictional line in Minnesota and so far, has come up empty. But that doesn’t minimize the search efforts.

Cork’s grandson, who goes by Waaboo, was out hunting for blueberries. While staying with Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux who lives the simple life of a hermit and is a de factor father figure to the locals, Waaboo stumbles across what appears to be an Ojibwe grave. Waaboo is a unique in that he has a gift of seeing and describing visions and voices he hears. When word gets out, the media swamps the town on the assumption that the body in the grave is that of the politician’s lost daughter. Cork and family are worried that Waaboo might be in the crosshairs of both the media and the killer(s).

Problem is that the autopsy reveals the woman was “just” a local teenage Ojibwe. As far as the media and the police are concerned, that case is not as important as the politician’s daughter. The cops continue their investigation while Cork and the tribal police focus on the Ojibwe corpse.

There is a side story going on. In the area is awash with construction workers working on an oil pipeline that is on track to cross spiritual grounds of the Ojibwe. That brings two fronts on conflict: the politics of state approval of the affront to the Ojibwe’s land and the crude roughnecks on the job.

The pressing question is whether the demise of the two women is related

Krueger is pressing the cases of missing and dead indigenous children as well as the attitude that ‘whites’ take in dismissing any concerns expressed by the local indigenous population. His case in compelling and important. He has dealt with these themes in numerous earlier titles of his. See This Tender Land and The River We Remember.

Many times, a title in a mystery series can be read as a standalone. Not this time. The narrative assumes that the reader is familiar with Cork’s history, his family, his neighbors, and the town. Go to your library, look at the copyright dates back at least about 10 years so that the history is laid out. Leave no doubt that this story is consistent with Krueger’s story-telling gifts. Top shelf. Heck, he’s an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel for Ordinary Grace. Saying he’s good is an understatement. But if this is the first Krueger book, a reader might feel a bit lost and dissatisfied. 

 

ECD