Krueger has a long history with Cork O'Connor - this is his 21st O'Connor outing.
O'Connor is the retired sheriff in Aurora, MN. From there, left for a few years to be a Chicago cop, then came back. Joined the force for a few years, won an election, make that a lot of elections. Now retired, he lives with his immediate and extended family way the hell up nort' near the legendary Boundary Waters. He took over a local hamburger stand but still does some PI work when the need arises.
His son, Steven, is in law school and moonlights a bit for a non-profit dedicated to freeing the wrongly convicted from prison. When shuffling through the stacks of potential cases, he finds one from Aurora. Axel Boshey is serving a life term in the Stillwater, MN prison. He confessed to the brutal murder of his wife. The first capital case for the newly elected Sheriff O'Connor.
At the time, it seemed an open and shut case. Blacked-out drunk Indian (who already beat a manslaughter charge years earlier), a philandering wife. While all the evidence pointed to Boshey, some seemingly trivial details were left hanging. At the time, the evidence and confession pointed only at Boshey.
In the light of 25 years, those details don't seem so trivial, at least to Steven so he asks his dad if he might review the case to see what might've been missed or overlooked or lost in the shuffle of a quick closing of the case. Cork agrees. The thought that the wrong man was incarcerated and that the real killer might still be free drive him to make things right.
That's the premise. The narrative breaks into two parts: Then and Now. 'Then' is told in first person as it happened. The killing, investigation, confession, incarceration; takes upwards of 60-65% of the book. A significant backstory. 'Now' is told similarly. First person, as it's happening.
The main characters are Cork and family, a hippie flake (Aphrodite) who moved into area and formed a bit of a commune (replete with hipsters, alcohol, drugs, and free love), the cops of the time (one of whom Cork defeated in the first election, other is a racist pig against the native population), and various colorful locals, their kids and grandchildren. In particular, Chastity (Aphrodite's child) and Boshey (her husband) and two of Chastity's kids (neither by Axel; Moonbeam and Sunny).
Axel gets sentenced to life and turns his life around from being an unreliable drunk to becoming a bit of a healer for inmates. Comes to realize this calling may be why was really locked away. When Cork sees Axel 25 years later, Axel tells him he doesn't want to be released, that he's needed in the prison more than Cork needs to set him free.
That the real killer may still be around, Cork goes off on his own trying to piece together a complex interaction of what turns out to be a series of seriously demented people Cork thought he knew.
As stated above, this is Krueger's 21st book featuring Cork O'Connor. That means he's got a following and must be pretty successful to boot (lots of NY Times bestsellers). He also have four other unrelated novels, three of which I've read and reviewed here. One of which, Ordinary Grace, is one of the best books I've ever read and won the 2014 Edgar Award for best fiction (the book version of the Oscar for Best Picture. If you've not read Ordinary Grace, you really owe it to yourself). Not really sure how many Cork O'Connor books I've read and reviewed here. Whatever that is, there are more.
While reading this book, I had a feeling that this is a book he'd started way back when, put it aside and never got back to it. But after a while, he resurrected the manuscript, and reorganized it to be a cold case book. Regardless, Krueger has presented loyal readers (and newbies, too) with another memorable outing filled with concrete characters, the emotional edge needed for such a story, a comfortable rural setting, native characters and the mysticism that permeates their soul.
Can't go wrong with Krueger. Betting your local library has a shelf full of his work. It's about time you get to it.
ECD
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