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Sheriff Cork O'Connor is in hiding having crossed a wealthy, connected old man. The old man thinks that Cork killed his sons; while Cork might have wanted to kill them, someone else did the honors. That didn't stop Lou Jacoby from putting a price on Cork's head and now several hit men are after him. Cork was wounded in one attempt to kill him and he managed to make it to his cousin's place at an old resort in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Jewell hasn't seen Cork for years, but he is family after all. Jewell's 14-year-old son, Renoir 'Ren' helps care for Cork and through Ren Cork meets Charlene, better known as Charlie. The girl's mother is dead and her father is a drunk. Charlene spends a lot of time with Ren, and Jewell is a substitute mother figure to her. Cork gets involved when the body of a teenaged girl is discovered in Lake Superior. No one recognizes her except Charlie. When things are exceptionally bad at home, Charlie has been known to go to a youth shelter in Marquette, where she met Sara Wolf. Charlie knows that Sara wouldn't commit suicide but no one can figure out how her body got into the river and then into the lake. But Ren and Charlie and a third teen saw the body in the river. Now because of what they saw, someone is after them. COPPER RIVER is extremely intense. In addition to Cork and his wound and his need to lie low there is the angle of his cousin and her son and the problems besetting the small town of Bodine. First there was a brutal murder, then the girl's body was discovered, followed by a hit and run accident in which Ren and Charlie's friend was injured. While Cork agonizes over not being with his wife and children, he realizes that he is called upon to protect the children where he is now staying. Cork is a good man, and a good sheriff; and he takes his responsibilities very seriously. The locale of the story is as much of a character in the plot as the people. The beauty of the uninhabited woods and the lake -- they are all part of the mysterious aura surrounding the novel. As in his previous novels, the author deftly presents the reader with wonderfully drawn, intensely believable characters. We care about them and about what happens to them. The author gives us much to think about in this book, but most especially the plight of the 'throwaway children' of our society. Krueger writes most extraordinary books.
Reviewed by Lorraine Gelly, August 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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