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NORTHWEST ANGLE (AUDIO)
by William Kent Krueger, read by Buck Schirner
Brilliance Audio, August 2011
Unabridged pages
$29.99
ISBN: 1423396154


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

After the trials of the past several years, Cork O'Connor decided to take his family on a relaxing cruise of the Lake of the Woods. Cork and oldest daughter Jenny left the houseboat so that Cork could show her a very special island. But a vicious storm arose suddenly. Jenny looked back to see that Cork was gone from the dingy and then she crashed into an island. The two were reunited on the island where Jenny had discovered an empty cabin, a dead girl, and a baby. Then they were stalked by someone with a rifle who did not fear to shoot at them. Rescued they needed to learn who murdered the girl, who the baby belonged to, and who the stalker was. This led to great danger for the entire family.

As usual Krueger's characters are three dimensional and very believable. Readers who have read the earlier books know them well, although both Cork and Jenny show us new and engaging traits as they struggle for survival. In particular Jenny is in the spotlight in this book as she is fierce in her determination to save this baby even if it means her own life. Of course she sometimes questions her resolve, but even when her current boyfriend arrives she clearly chooses the baby over him. Cork is strong but fearful for his daughter, both for her life and for the decisions she seems to be making.

There is a great deal of information, subtly sown throughout the book, about the Ojibway Indians, their rituals, their beliefs, and their traditions. The baby is clearly Ojibway as is the girl who must have been the mother. Cork himself has Ojibway blood. So the reader gets to learn, painlessly, much about the customs of that tribe that lives in northwestern Minnesota.

The Northwest Angle, which is where the entire O'Connor family ended up once Cork and Jenny were rescued, is a very interesting area. It is a peninsula, not connected by land to the United States and is the only land in the United States north of the 48th parallel (excepting, of course, Alaska).

The descriptions in this book are magical. Krueger makes the reader see and feel the storm, the desolation of the islands, the brilliance of the sky and the water reflecting it. Reading this book is as good as taking a tour of this unique area. Listening to it is even better as sometimes one tends to skim over the descriptions and that cannot be done when listening.

The plot is suspenseful. Every time I thought the O'Connors were finally safe, there was another threat. The tension rose higher and higher until the very end of the book. The identity of the murderer is made lear partway through the book but that does not end the question of what is going to happen to Jenny, to the baby, to Cork himself.

Unfortunately the reader of this spoken book is no better than mediocre. When he reads dialogue, it sounds as if all the speakers are out of breath. He does not do a particularly good job of differentiating between characters. He just is not easy to listen to. Fortunately this is far too good a book to be marred by a mediocre reading. It has everything a reader wants in a book, brilliant setting, believable characters, exciting plot, and an intriguing mystery.

§ Sally Fellows is a retired history teacher with an MA in history and an avid reader of mysteries.

Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, August 2011

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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