Thunder Bay

I always feel like I've just returned from a visit to Northern Minnesota when I finish a Cork O'Connor book. Loved Thunder Bay! Sat down to read for awhile yesterday evening and read the entire book from cover to cover before heading for bed. WKK's character descriptions are so good I feel that I know these people -I'm not just reading about them. His descriptions of the North Woods make me feel like I'm on that trail, in that canoe, climbing that rocky cliff, driving down that dusy road! Really, really liked reading Henry's story. I've always loved Henry, now I feel like I know him. I always look forward to the next book - they just keep getting better and better - and hope that WKK continues to write about Cork and his family for many years to come.

Can't wait until September when his new book comes out. His books get better and better, being from MN and having traveled up the north shore to Thunder Bay it was so exciting to read about things we had seen. You won't regret reading any of his books

In his retirement from the sheriff's department, Cork O'Connor runs a lakeside snack shack and enjoys a quiet life in Aurora, Minnesota. But he can't sell enough fries to send his older daughter Jenny to college next fall, and he's obtained his private investigators license to supplement the family bank account. Jenny's intense romance with Sean concerns both Cork and his wife Jo, and it turns out they have reason to be worried. But Cork hasn't the luxury to deal with Jenny's tragedy head on, because of the trouble that comes to him. Henry Meloux, an ancient Ojibwe medicine man whom Cork has known and revered for 40 years, enters the hospital with chest pain. When Cork rushes to see him, Henry has a request: find the son no one knew he had, a son who Henry has never even met, a son whose name he doesn't even know. All Cork has to go on is the mother's name, Henry's suspicion that the son is somewhere near Ontario, Canada, and a gold pocket watch with the woman's picture. Thus begins a quest that takes us deeply into Henry's story --- the story of a young Ojibwe orphan, conscripted into an American Indian school, forbidden to speak his own language and forced into labor on a farm; the story of how this young man escapes and learns from his uncle to live off the land; and the story of how he meets Maria Lima deep in the Canadian wilderness, an impetuous and intelligent Cuban beauty traveling with her father, one of two gold prospectors, for whom Henry serves as a guide. Violence and greed separate Henry and Maria, but not before they fall deeply in love. Now, 70 years later, Henry must bear the news that Maria married the other prospector, Leonard Wellington. Yet she named her first son, who was born only two months after their marriage, Henry. When Cork finds the grown-up Henry, a Howard Hughes-style recluse on an island up in Thunder Bay, his hopes for organizing a reunion between father and son fade. The man is a fanatic. He's not interested in entertaining the notion that his father was an "Indian buck." But back home in Minnesota, Henry's heart problems vanish now that he knows his son is alive and needs him. He insists that Cork take him to Canada, and Cork, because he owes so much to Henry, cannot say no. It's an exciting and gripping story, and as a bonus, the characterization and writing transcend the usual standards of genre fiction. Krueger conveys much through his use of vivid detail. Here's his description of Henry Wellington's bodyguard: "I saw that he was hard all over, well muscled, with a broad chest, narrow waist, thick arms, and a neck like a section of concrete pillar. He wore sunglasses and didn't remove them. I saw myself small, approaching in their reflection." To add to the menace, when they arrive in Wellington's chamber, the television is showing an open heart surgery. "The bloody hands on the television gripped the heart, and I was afraid maybe they were going to pull it out of the body. The screen went black. I didn'

I'm new to Mr. Krueger's work but the title really jumped out at me and I had to get it - I live in Thunder Bay, as it happens. I really enjoy series with recurring characters (i.e., The Kellermans, Robert B. Parker, Lawrence Saunders, Sandra Brown, JD Robb etc.) and, although "Thunder Bay" works perfectly as a stand-alone novel, I can't wait to get to know Cork, Jo, Annie, Jennie, Wally and everyone better and will be stocking up on Mr. Krueger's previous (and future!)offerings. I've never read a book set at least partially in my hometown before, probably because there aren't any/many others. He got it exactly right and it was, for lack of a better descriptor, SO COOL to be reading a passage and say "Yup. I know exactly where he means. I've stood in that exact spot. They have great ice cream."

I fell in love with Krueger's work starting with his first Cork O'Connor book. The North Woods of Minnesota almost become another living character under his skilled descriptions. Contrary to what another review said, the books are set up in the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota. It was only the last book, Copper River, that ventured into Michigan and the UP. But although I liked Copper River, I missed the town of Aurora and all of the other characters who inhabit it. I'm glad Cork is "home" again in this tale. Of course, some of the story actually takes Cork across the Canadian border, to the town that gives the book its name. Having been to Thunder Bay, I could picture the drive. The book goes between the present and the past -- Henry Meloux's past, to be specific. Henry has always been a fascinating character, so it was great to see what made him into the man he is. Thunder Bay has everything you could ask for -- good characters, a mysterious past coming back to haunt someone, death, love, redemption, heartache, loss, and triumph. And the North Shore of Lake Superior, a character in and of itself.