Part Irish, part Native American, Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor puts aside his grudge against the small Minnesota town that rejected him as a sheriff to investigate a sinister conspiracy responsible for the murder of the local judge. A first novel.

Iron Lake

Literature & Fiction

Krueger, William Kent.

United States

Atria

William Kent Krueger joined the ranks of today's best suspense novelists with this thrilling, universally acclaimed debut. Conjuring "a sense of place he's plainly honed firsthand in below-zero prairie" (Kirkus Reviews), Krueger brilliantly evokes northern Minnesota's lake country -- and reveals the dark side of its snow-covered landscape. Part Irish, part Anishinaabe Indian, Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor is the former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota. Embittered by his "former" status, and the marital meltdown that has separated him from his children, Cork gets by on heavy doses of caffeine, nicotine, and guilt. Once a cop on Chicago's South Side, there's not much that can shock him. But when the town's judge is brutally murdered, and a young Eagle Scout is reported missing, Cork takes on a mind-jolting case of conspiracy, corruption, and scandal. As a lakeside blizzard buries Aurora, Cork must dig out the truth among town officials who seem dead-set on stopping his investigation in its tracks. But even Cork freezes up when faced with the harshest enemy of all: a small-town secret that hits painfully close to home.

Iron Lake (Cork O'Connor Mystery Series)

Pocket Star

Boundary Waters

The Quetico-Superior Wilderness: two million-plus acres of primeval forest, white-water rapids, and uncharted islands on the Canadian/American border. Somewhere in the heart of this unforgiving territory, a young woman named Shiloh -- a country-western singer at the height of her fame -- has disappeared. Her father arrives in Aurora, Minnesota, intent on hiring Cork O'Connor -- former Aurora sheriff and an old family friend -- to find his daughter. Reluctant at first, Cork finds himself forced into joining a search party comprised of Shiloh's father, an angry ex-convict, a pair of FBI agents, and a ten-year-old boy. But they are not the only ones hunting Shiloh. Others are on her trail as well. Hired men: hired not just to find her...but to kill her. As the expedition ventures deeper into the wilderness, strangers descend on Aurora, threatening to spill blood on the town's snow-whitened streets over a fifteen-year-old unsolved murder. Meanwhile, out on the Boundary Waters, winter falls hard. Cork's team of searchers loses all contact with civilization, and like the brutal winds of a relentless Minnesota blizzard, death -- violent and sudden -- stalks them. Iron Lake marked William Kent Krueger as an electrifyingly fresh voice in the annals of suspense. Vivid, explosive, and utterly compelling, Boundary Waters is a masterpiece of mystery and much more. It is a brilliant novel of love, greed, murder, and survival, an uncommon page-turner that establishes Krueger as one of the most versatile and talented authors writing today.

The Quetico-Superior Wilderness: more than two million acres of forest, white-water rapids, and uncharted islands on the Canadian/American border. Somewhere in the heart of this unforgiving territory, a young woman named Shiloh -- a country-western singer at the height of her fame -- has disappeared. Her father arrives in Aurora, Minnesota, to hire Cork O'Connor to find his daughter, and Cork joins a search party that includes an ex-con, two FBI agents, and a ten-year-old boy. Others are on her trail as well -- men hired not just to find her, but to kill her. As the expedition ventures deeper into the wilderness, strangers descend on Aurora, threatening to spill blood on the town's snowy streets. Meanwhile, out on the Boundary Waters, winter falls hard. Cork's team of searchers loses contact with civilization, and like the brutal winds of a Minnesota blizzard, death -- violent and sudden -- stalks them.

Boundary Waters (Cork O'Connor Mystery Series)

Purgatory Ridge

Cork O'Connor is called in to investigate when a deadly explosion rocks the lumber mill of Karl Lindstrom, a wealthy, anti-environmentalist industrialist, whose mill is near an ancient tract of pine forest, sacred to the Anishinaabe tribe, when members of the tribe become the prime suspects in the crime. By the author of Iron Lake and Boundary Waters.

Winner of the prestigious Loft-McKnight Fiction Award and the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, William Kent Krueger has established himself as a startlingly original voice in thriller fiction. With Purgatory Ridge he cements his standing as a suspense writer of the highest caliber. Not far from the small town of Aurora (population 3,752) lies an ancient two-hundred-acre expanse of great white pines, sacred to the Anishinaabe and known to them as Minishoomisag (Our Grandfathers). Wealthy industrialist Karl Lindstrom does not have a reputation as a sensitive environmentalist, and some members of the Anishinaabe tribe are concerned about the proximity of the trees to his lumber mill. So when an explosion at the mill results in the death of a night watchman, it's obvious whom suspicion will fall upon. Cork O'Connor, in the throes of straightening out his life and repairing his marriage, is asked by his successor as sheriff to help with the investigation. His sense of community obliges him to accept, but Cork has distinctly mixed feelings about the case. For one thing, he is part Anishinaabe himself. For another, his lawyer wife, Jo, represents the tribe. Meanwhile, in a secluded house that overlooks the lakeside home of the Lindstrom family, a reclusive shipwreck survivor and his sidekick also seem to be harboring some resentment of their own against the industrialist. And it soon becomes clear to Cork that harmony, both at home and in the town, will be on the back burner for some time. William Kent Krueger's precise and atmospheric prose, combined with his keen eye for the telling details of small-town life and his vivid sense of the land and seascapes of northern Minnesota, will impress and delight both his old fans and those discovering him for the first time.

Purgatory Ridge (Cork O'Connor Mystery Series)

The sixth novel in William Kent Krueger's award-winning suspense series finds Cork O'Connor running for his life -- straight into a murderous conspiracy involving teenage runaways.
In well-crafted settings that are beautiful and unforgiving, with unforgettable characters and jaw-dropping surprises, William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor thrillers have drawn a flood of awards and praise. The latest in the series finds the sheriff running for his life from professional hit men who have already put a bullet through his leg. Desperate, he finds sanctuary outside a small town called Bodine on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in an old resort owned by his cousin, Jewell DuBois. Though Jewell, a bitter widow whose husband may have been killed by cops, keeps Cork at arm's length, her fourteen-year-old son, Ren, is looking for a friend. But being a father figure to Ren will prove more difficult than Cork could possibly imagine.
When the body of a young girl surfaces along the banks of the Copper River and another teenager vanishes, Cork must choose between helping to solve these deadly mysteries and thwarting the hit men who draw closer to him with every hour. Recklessly, he turns from his own worries and focuses on tracking the conspiracy of killers before Ren and his best friend, Charlie, fall victim. It's an error -- one a good man might make -- but as the contract killers who are hunting him close in, Cork realizes too late that it may be the last mistake he'll ever make.
The trail left by the dead girl eventually leads to a shelter for homeless youth and into the grim reality of children lost and abandoned, who become easy prey for the perverted appetites of human predators. All small towns have buried
secrets but, as Cork soon learns, this one has more than its share.
The sixth novel in William Kent Krueger's award-winning suspense series finds Cork O'Connor running for his life -- straight into a murderous conspiracy involving teenage runaways.
In well-crafted settings that are beautiful and unforgiving, with unforgettable characters and jaw-dropping surprises, William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor thrillers have drawn a flood of awards and praise. The latest in the series finds the sheriff running for his life from professional hit men who have already put a bullet through his leg. Desperate, he finds sanctuary outside a small town called Bodine on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in an old resort owned by his cousin, Jewell DuBois. Though Jewell, a bitter widow whose husband may have been killed by cops, keeps Cork at arm's length, her fourteen-year-old son, Ren, is looking for a friend. But being a father figure to Ren will prove more difficult than Cork could possibly imagine.
When the body of a young girl surfaces along the banks of the Copper River and another teenager vanishes, Cork must choose between helping to solve these deadly mysteries and thwarting the hit men who draw closer to him with every hour. Recklessly, he turns from his own worries and focuses on tracking the conspiracy of killers before Ren and his best friend, Charlie, fall victim. It's an error -- one a good man might make -- but as the contract killers who are hunting him close in, Cork realizes too late that it may be the last mistake he'll ever make.
The trail left by the dead girl eventually leads to a shelter for homeless youth and into the grim reality of children lost and abandoned, who become easy prey for the perverted appetites of human predators. All small towns have buried
secrets but, as Cork soon learns, this one has more than its share.

Copper River: A Cork O'Connor Mystery

Leaving behind a stressful law enforcement career in the hopes of becoming a private investigator in his small Minnesota hometown, Cork O'Connor is asked by an Ojibwe healer to help him find the son the man fathered years earlier, a case that culminates in an attempt on the Ojibwe's life. By the author of Mercy Falls. 25,000 first printing.

Thunder Bay: A Cork O'Connor Mystery (Cork O'connor Mysteries, 7)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Atria Books

The creator of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Cork O'Connor mystery series presents a haunting, atmospheric conspiracy thriller. Locked in a tight battle for reelection, President Clay Dixon knows his best chance for victory is the popularity of his wife, Kate. But the disenchanted First Lady is about to desert him. When an orchard accident seriously injures Kate's father, a retired senator and former vice president, she returns to the family farm in Minnesota to be at his side. Assigned to protect her, Secret Service agent Bo Thorsen soon falls under Kate's spell. Bo suspects that the accident is part of a trap to lure the First Lady home, a trap set by a man named David Moses, an escaped mental patient who once loved Kate. But although Bo and Moses don't realize it, they're caught in a larger web of deadly intrigue spun by a shadowy, seemingly insignificant bureaucratic department within the federal government itself. Racing to find answers before an assassin's bullet kills Kate, Bo comes to understand that when you lie down with the Devil, there's hell to pay. Both ambitious and compelling, The Devil's Bed is sure to thrill and surprise devotees of Cork O'Connor and win new fans alike.

The Devil's Bed

Thrillers & Suspense

From the creator of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Cork O'Connor mystery series comes a haunting, atmospheric, conspiracy thriller. When President Clay Dixon's father-in-law—a former vice president—is injured in a farming accident, First Lady Kate Dixon returns to Minnesota to be at his side. Assigned to protect her, Secret Service agent Bo Thorsen soon falls under Kate's spell. He also suspects the accident is part of a trap set for Kate by David Moses, an escaped mental patient who once loved her. What Bo and Moses don't realize is that they're caught in a web of deadly intrigue spun by a seemingly insignificant bureaucratic department within the federal government. Racing to find answers before an assassin's bullet can kill Kate, Bo soon learns that when you lie down with the devil, there's hell to pay.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Krueger, William Kent.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Krueger, William Kent.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Krueger, William Kent.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Iron Lake

Iron Lake (Cork O'Connor Mystery Series)

Boundary Waters

Boundary Waters (Cork O'Connor Mystery Series)

Purgatory Ridge

Purgatory Ridge (Cork O'Connor Mystery Series)

Copper River: A Cork O'Connor Mystery

Thunder Bay: A Cork O'Connor Mystery (Cork O'connor Mysteries, 7)

The Devil's Bed

The Devil's Bed