Windigo Island

I’m often drawn to novels that have settings I’m familiar with.  Thus picking up Windigo Island set in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin’s Bayfield and nearby  Apostle islands was easy.

Krueger's "Windigo Island" is the latest in his series featuring northern Minnesota private investigator Cork O'Connor, who is part Ojibwe. In this thriller Cork is asked by a family who lives on a reservation to find their missing daughter. The teenager left with a friend whose body was washed up on the shore of an island in Lake Superior where old legends tell of a fearful monster called a Windigo. But a real Windigo is more horrible when he traffics in young women to service sailors who come into Duluth on big ships. Cork must turn to his wise old Anishinaabe mentor, Henry, to confront evil.

The novel has a fascinating mixture of characters and insights into native American culture. As a native Minnesotan the facts of poverty in both urban and reservation Indian communities  were somewhat well know.  The sexual exploitation of girls from reservation detailed in the authors preface came as a shock.

The following quote from the aged Anishinaabe set the theme for my understanding of the book and has stayed with me since reading it.

"In every human being, there are two wolves constantly fighting. One is fear, and the other is love. The one that wins the battle? The one you feed. Always the one you feed."

Perhaps the author might have emphasized the majesty of northern Minnesota and the Lake Superior region where I have spent some of happiest days canoeing, hunting and fishing.  But then this was a “thriller” not a travel book and it’s ok…..

Aside from the book, I've been to the Apostle Islands several times, along Minnesota & Ontario's North shore many times since childhood and into the boundary waters canoe country as well.
There you can experience where water meets land and sky, culture meets culture, and past meets present. As I said the setting of land, people and history alone can entice me into reading a book.