North West Angle

 Visiting Rochester Minnesota for my anual physical at W.FM.C. (World famous Mayo Clinic  And was informed at age Eighty my "vitals" were all very good, I decided to head to  the nearby Goodwill store and find some bargain books . If it were tapes or even sheet music they  would be "golden oldies". Now I would be look for famous Authors  of best sellers I may have missed in the past. Hard covers for 2 dollars per, Paperbacks  at a buck, "bodice rippers A.K.A Harlequin. Fifty cents. 

    Putting my glasses on as if walked along the hard cover novel shelves I spotted the Wiliam Kent Krueger. Perhaps Minnesota most revered best selling mystery writers. I had met him severa years previously when he  was touring small town rural libraries  giving book talks. I was quite sure I had read all of the series of books featuring sheriff Cork'OConner but not judging a book by its cover I turn to a random page and rea it not recognizing a single thing.....oops Mrs. Troutbirder MY English TEACHER WIFE AND FORMER EDITOR now residing HEAVEN  WOULD NOT APPROVE.

     Cork O'CONNER obviously Irish but also native American  has retired from his job as county  Sheriff  in the wildernesses of far northern Minnesota's canoe country including its  lakes, the Canadian border, and gigantic lake Superior. as a PI now he an and his grown daughter, Jenny, get stranded by a gale on an island in Minnesota's Northwest Angle, an area of the state cut off from the U.S. by 60 miles of Canadian wilderness and the vast Lake of the Woods. 

Having left the rest of his extended family on their rented houseboat, Cork andJenny are exploring one of the islands in the Lake of the Woods along the US/Canada border when a derecho — a weather phenomenon that packs hurricane-force winds — suddenly strikes them. Seeking shelter, they discover a cabin in which a young woman has been brutally tortured and murdered. Once the storm passes, they hear the weak cries of a baby outside, apparently the dead woman's son, now abandoned. But before they can be rescued, a man with a rifle circles the island in a cigarette boat. Cork implicitly understands this is not a friendly visit, and arranges to move Jenny and the boy to a nearby island for their safety. They are eventually reunited with their family, but it's clear the baby boy is important to someone — and that someone won't hesitate to kill to get him back. All the while Jenny bonds with the baby and does everything  she can to try and keep him  safe. This part is basically a survival story with the likely murderer stalking them with a rifle . I know this area very well taking my sons there many times on canoe fishing adventures adventures 

 

Northwest Angle is, simply  a great  novel of suspense. There is some mystery of course as we[[ since a rather strange ultra right wing religious group is up to something suspicious s in ther barricaded fortress like church. The characters, the setting, the danger — real and imagined — are in perfect order here. This is not a whodunit in the traditional sense, but a "how is it going to play out"-type of mystery. par that was a bvit teioud was Jenny ponder her relationship with her boyfriend  and her potential for beina a moe.  one were to find fault here, it might be in the pacing, which at times tends to be overly introspective — in particular, Jenny pondering her relationship with her boyfriend and her potential for being a mother — 

The wisdom of Henry Meloux is on display in several exceptionally well-written scenes, and is one of the hallmarks of this series. 

This fine series just keeps getting better. Inspired I think I might head back up there this summer after seeing if my new girlfriend wants to go walleye fishing with me :)

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