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The opening of fishing season is only days away, but Cork O‛Connor still hasn‛t opened Sam‛s Place, his hamburger joint on Iron Lake. Alexander Kingbird has asked him to help defuse a conflict between the Red Boyz, an Ojibwe gang living on the Iron Lake Reservation, and the white community of Aurora, Minnesota. Buck Reinhardt holds Lonnie Thunder responsible for the death of his daughter, and he believes gang leader Kingbird is hiding the man. When Kingbird says he‛ll provide Reinhardt with justice, Cork agrees to arrange a meeting between the two. Before he can do so, though, Kingbird and his wife are murdered, execution style. Much to his wife‛s displeasure, Cork agrees to help the authorities find Kingbird‛s killer. He rethinks his decision after someone takes a potshot at him and his son. Fearful for his family‛s safety, Cork moves into Sam‛s Place temporarily. Meanwhile, Cork‛s daughter Annie befriends Kingbird‛s younger brother, Uly. A talented guitarist, Uly is taking a lot of grief from white classmates at his high school. Annie is alarmed when Uly asks her to pray for him after a second murder occurs. Her worries grow even as Cork makes headway in his search for Lonnie Thunder. Neither father nor daughter can guess at the coming tragedy that will forever change their lives. William Kent Krueger has written his most powerful novel to date in Red Knife. Here is a tale that repeats history even as we say we‛ve put that history behind us. As usual, it is the self-proclaimed superiority of one group over another that leads to trouble. The Red Boyz feel demeaned by the white populace of Aurora and betrayed by their Ojibwe leaders. Calling upon their warrior past, they attempt to lead the youth of Iron Lake Reservation down a different path from that taken by their elders. One man‛s hands are not clean, though, and having lain down with dogs, he now must deal with the fleas. Individual decisions, good and bad, lie at the heart of this story. Krueger depicts how those decisions affect not only individuals, but also their families and the community as a whole. Cork‛s conflicting emotions regarding his role in Aurora seem resolved at the end of the book, making this reviewer wonder if this is the closing chapter in the Cork O‛Connor saga. I sincerely hope not, as will all fans of this thought-provoking series. Cork is the conscience of every person who has had to deal with uncertainty. I hope he‛ll live on for many books to come.
Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, May 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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