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Cork O'Connor and his family are on a vacation in the Northwest Angle, a part of Minnesota as far north as one can go and still be in Minnesota. It's lovely, and remote. The family is sharing a houseboat and just enjoying the serenity. On this particular day, Cork is taking his daughter Jenny to pick up her boyfriend, Aaron, and making a short side-trip on the way to show her something. What he has to show her is part of her Ojibway heritage, and Cork's heavy-handed way of expressing his opinion on some problems Jenny is having with Aaron. As they leave the island in Lake of the Woods, they are surprised by a derecho, a fierce windstorm. Cork is thrown overboard and Jenny manages to make it to an island, although the boat does not survive the landing. Cork eventually makes it to the same island. They discover, while searching for shelter, the body of a young woman. She has been tortured. They also find her baby, hidden away and still alive. Cork, Jenny, and the baby are eventually reunited with the rest of the family; they have also managed to survive the derecho, albeit with some minor injuries. Someone is hunting the baby. Cork, with the help of local law enforcement, tries to find out who killed the woman and who wants the baby. Are they the same person? Is there some connection to the Church of the Seven Trumpets, a group preparing for the End Times? Or is it all something to do with drug smuggling? This is the 11th book in the Cork O'Connor series. Fans of the series know that Krueger is greatly underappreciated as a mystery writer. His sense of place is exquisite. His plots are convoluted, not for the sake of complicaton but for the good of the story. His characters are so human, so flawed, so normal. Their concerns are like those of people we all know. Jenny isn't sure where her relationship with Aaron is headed. Cork wants his family to be happy and close. Rose wants things to work out for the best, although her ability to wait things out is better than most peoples. Krueger's use of the weather in NORTHWEST ANGLE is stunning. A derecho is a once-in-a-lifetime event. A writer with less skill would make the corollary between what happens in these characters lives and the derecho far more obvious. Krueger makes it a turning point for the characters, not the focal point. § P.J. Coldren lives in northern lower Michigan where she reads and reviews widely across the mystery genre when she isn't working in her local hospital pharmacy.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, September 2011
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