A Novel (Cork O'Connor) (2009) Paperback - by Krueger

A continuation of the last book, that for a while felt like the second of three, until a less than satisfactory conclusion ended that notion. Good page turning action, but less well thought out than usual. Is the author getting tired of Cork?

I've decided to stick with William Kent Krueger and his "Cork O'Connor" series. I’ve also decided to brace myself to the realization that Krueger can be a hit, or it can feel like he’s off. But since I just admitted that I’ve decided to stick with Krueger, and this series, I’d say he’s more hit than miss. “Copper River” is likely the best of Krueger that I’ve read yet, and for me, this is just book #6, and I loved it!

So, after being in a toss-up mess with a family with the last name of Jacoby, it is no surprise that Cork O’Connor just happens to show up with a random bullet in a random leg in Bodine, Michigan. What is a surprise is where he shows up, and immediately, Cork is under the bitter realization that Jewell DuBois just might not want him around, family or not. But reluctantly, knowing her medicine, she agrees to nurse him back to health, and welcome Cork as her guest. Meeting Jewell again is tentative, yet Cork also meets her son, Ren, and best buddy, Charlene, who goes by Charlie. Don’t mess with Charlie, by the way! Better yet, don’t mess with Bodine, Michigan. Kids are missing, young girls especially, and out of his jurisdiction or not, wounded or not, Cork O’Connor is already asking questions, and Dina Willner is along for the ride to help him!

Bodine, Michigan has good people. But it also has bad people. The bad people already don’t like Ren none too much, and they’re beginning to dislike the company of Cork and Dina. Ned, the man in charge, doesn’t mind the extra help, and he welcomes it. Others see Cork and company as the kind that asks too many questions, and the quicker Cork leaves, the better. Who’s going to win this one?

I’ve always had multiple questions about William Kent Krueger. I think it’s obvious that he has faith of some sort, yet he’s content to weave in the legend of the Ojibwe within this series. I find it interesting as to how he wrestles with things, and doesn’t mind doing so with Cork taking the lead. “Thunder Bay” is next up in this series for me, and I hope that this series stays gold, just like “Copper River” did with me this time around.

Running from the hitmen sent after him by an angry and confused father, Cork takes a bullet in the leg. Unable to go to a hospital, he falls back on family in the form of a cousin, Jewell Dubois, who just happens to be a veterinarian. Holed up at her wilderness resort, he hopes to lay low while the police prove that he wasn't the one who killed Lou Jakobi's son.

But this is Cork O'Connor we're talking about. Ren, Jewell's son, is with a couple of friends when one of them sees a body floating down Copper River. No one else sees it and Ren is more inclined to think it was a log, but then his friend Charlie's father is found bludgeoned to death, and Charlie is missing. Two days later, his other friend, Stash, is hit by a car. Is someone coming for him next?

This takes up where the last book seemed to leave us hanging over the abyss of unfinished story land. I started this while driving out of town and as luck would have it, hadn't downloaded the second half of the book! I almost cried. Copper River is one of the best books in the series so far - I love the intensity of family and friendship this work includes. The action isn't bad either. Hopefully Jewell and Ren will return in another book.

I first heard of Mr. Krueger when I ordered "Ordinary Grace" from the store. I checked this and another if his books from the library. His books are well written, interesting and good for taking readers out of their own time and place and into another environment.

This book is set in Mr. Kreuger's favorite place in the world, the upper midwest, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, in this story. Cork O'Connor, Krueger's character, had to go into hiding. His life is threatened by a very wealthy man who thinks Cork has killed his son. Not Guilty. Cork is in great pain, he has been shot in the leg by one of this man's paid killers. He is now in hiding at his cousin's resort or lodge in the Upper Peninsula far away from civilization. But evil seems to never let him out of its sight. There is so much evil in this quiet part of the world.

Cork gets to know Ren, his cousin's fourteen year old son and the boy's best friend, Charlie, a tomboy who looks and dresses like a boy. Charlie comes from a bad family, no mother, her father is an alcoholic, he does love his daughter, but is not good at parenting. An understatement.

Cork is a combination of Irish and Ojibwe Indian as is all his family. Jewell, the cousin whose resort he is living in, is a veterinarian, a widow and is against police. She feels police are responsible for her husband's death. Jewell and Ren miss father and husband, gone only a year. Charlie is wild, does not like being confined, hates authority,is a free spirit so gets into a lot of trouble. She seems to be her own worse enemy at time.

Mr Krueger goes much into Indian problems, people who seem to have lost their identity. Cork is a champion of Indians, does much to help these people. He is proud of his heritage.

The setting of "Ordinary Grace" is much different than the Cork O'Connor books. I like all of this writing.

Henry Meloux, the old Ojibwe Mide is quite a character, a lover of earth, a wise man who floats in and out of the Cork O'Connor books.

Families are complicated. Especially when you're shot in the leg by a hitman chasing you and forced to stay with an estranged cousin to get medical help and keep your family safe. Suspended Sherriff Cork O'Connor finds himself wrapped up in a murder mystery and teen abduction case while recovering at his cousin's remote cabin in Minnesota. Jewell wants Cork to move on to protect the safety of her and her teenage son, Ren, but realizes quickly that she needs his help to stay protected when her son's best friends are witnesses to a crime. Part of the Cork O'Connor mystery series (which I am reading out of order) this novel works as a stand-alone mystery/suspense.

Maybe I should have read Mercy Falls before opening this book, since it's a continuation of that novel. O'Connor is hiding out from contracted killers, at a cousins home. He was seriously shot in the leg. His cousin, Jewel is a Veterinarian, and treating the wound. O'Connor is hobbled throughout the novel by his wound. He is a secondary character, and his story is a sub plot. The novel is about Jewel's teenage son Ren, and his Tomboy friend Charlie (Charlotte), The setting is a small town, Bodine, in the Upper Peninsular of Michigan. The Copper River runs along side the town into Lake Superior. A teenager thinks the see's a body floating down the river, while smoking a joint with, Ren and Charlie. This sets off a chain of events with additional murders, in addition to Cork having a bounty on his head.

Charlie has gender identification problems, this is glossed over in novel, and not really addressed. The novel tends to suggest she will just grow out of them, and not make a big issue of them. She is also having a rough time, her mother took off on her when she was an infant. Charlie's father a drunk. She spends time at a teenage runaway shelter, when her father goes on a drinking binge. Jewel like Charlie and is some what of a maternal influence for her.

Ren and Jewel also have indenty problems. Jewel is part native American, and has tried to hide this part of her identity. Her deceased husband embellished his Indian background and became active the Indian movement. He was shot by a Sherriff, during a demonstration. This made Jewel and Ren uneasy of there distant relative Cork, who is a lawman. Ren is trying to learn about his Indian background, with Cork encouragement

Dina Willner is also a major character. She is a former FBI agent who is a security consultant. She has saved Corks life on two previous occasions She is still assisting Cork from Mercy Falls. Her rough childhood background gave her a sympathetic connection to Charlie and Ren

I've only read three of Krueger's books. They all are well written. They are hard to put down, and have some simplicity to them that makes you feel comfortable and spiritual, even when there is great suspense. This story lack modern technology, think about teenagers with no video games, or computers, that was very strange. The ending to the Mercy Falls plot was very weak. Overall the book the book and enjoyable and thrilling.

Tamarack County, Minnesota sheriff Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor is on the run, after a wealthy and mob-connected old man blames him for the death of that man's last surviving son. With a bullet wound in his thigh, Cork manages to drive himself to the remote town where his first cousin, Jewell DuBois, lives with her 13-year-old son. Jewell is a veterinarian, and she patches Cork up and lets him stay in one of the cabins at the former resort that her dead husband operated. Daniel has only been gone for a year, and both Jewell and son Ren continue to grieve. Ren's best friend, Charlie (Charlene), sometimes takes refuge with them when her chronically drunk father goes on a bender. Sometimes she instead makes her way to Providence House, a safe house for teenagers located in a nearby small city. A girl named Sara Wolf has disappeared from Providence House recently. That's not unusual; the facility takes its residents' confidentiality seriously, and no one is going to follow up and try to locate Sara. Not until after her body turns up, and not until after someone starts pursuing the three teenagers - Ren, Charlie, and their friend "Stash" - who spotted that body while it was floating down the Copper River.

Cork needs to stay out of sight and out of communication with his family, in order to keep them safe. He has no intention of his presence putting Jewell and Ren in danger. But he can't refuse to investigate the mystery of Charlie's disappearance following her father's murder, with which he's fortunate enough to have help from security consultant Dina Willner, who has followed him to the resort and who sees her former self in the tough, conflicted, frightened young girl.

As usual for this series, Cork O'Connor's family history provides plot as well as background. That history isn't a comfortable one where his relationship with Jewell is concerned. The characterizations work well - both the familiar ones of Cork and (from the preceding book) Dina, and the rest of the cast here, newly introduced. The plot also works well, although some of the resolution feels a bit forced. I was pleased that the arc begun in "Mercy Falls" played out fully before this book ended. I feared another cliffhanger; and while I intend to read the whole series, which is excellent, I'm not a fan of "endings" that are not endings.

A good one over all!

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 science fiction EPPIE winner "Regs"

I don't like starting reading books in series. Unfortunately, I've started doing this, for better or worse, and so I read Copper River, without having read the previous books in William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series. The main character is a cop in Michigan's "Upper Peninsula" or U.P., and in this book he's nowhere near his department or town, and has almost nothing to do with them for the duration of the book. Instead, he's on the run from hired killers who have wounded him in the leg, and he winds up hiding with his cousin, a female country veterinarian who has a son in his young teens. That boy, and his best friend (who's a very tomboyish girl) get into various adventures, and in this book one of those adventures turns out to be another dead girl. The two teens go to look at the body, and things heat up from there, getting pretty dangerous by the end.

I enjoyed this book, more or less, and Krueger is a pretty good writer. I hate it when the plot starts out in the middle of something, and it's apparent that you've missed a bunch of the story. In this one the author had to do a considerable amount of backgrounding in order to keep you up to speed. He handled it reasonably well, and that made things acceptable, but I really wish I'd read the other book. That being said, the characters here were fun, the plot was believable (other than the big coincidence of Cork fleeing killers and stumbling across another, unconnected, set of killings) and the writing was very good. I'll look for other books in the series.

This is Krueger's best written "Cork" Corcoran mystery. His plot has fewer distractions than his previous efforts and the writing is quite taut. I am not sure it is his best book because the sheer vigor of his good first novel is hard to top, even if it tended to ramble a bit. But there is no wasted writing at all in the current novel, and if there are no "red herrings," neither are there any irrelevant side trips.

The pot finds Corcoran on the run from an aging paterfamilias who has put a price on his head for (as he erroneously believes) killing his son. Corcoran winds up hiding at the Upper Michigan home of a relative who has a young son who comes to idolize him. Some murders occur and the child and his semi-girl friend become targets. Depite his serious injury, Corcoran, with the help of his Wonder-woman ex-FBI agent friend, protect the kids and solve the mystery in a satisfactory way.

The weakest part of the book involves the resolution of the "hit" on Corcoran, particularly the confrontation between him and the Godfather-like senior. Obviously, Krueger wants to get Corcoran back to Minnesota in the worst way, and is willing to use some pretty thin plotting to do it. But overall, it is a fine addition to the Corcoran corpus. It will be good to get him back to his home turf.

Recovering from a gunshot wound to his thigh and hiding from a contract killer, Sheriff Cork O'Connor feels pretty useless these days. He can barely walk out of his cousin Jewell's cabin without collapsing. Not a good situation when cougar tracks are found among the cabins and local teens are either missing, critically injured, or dead over a one-week span in this small town. Cork's worries turn to fear when Jewell's son, Ren, and his friend, Charlie (short for Charlene), see a body in the river and soon realize someone's after them. Trouble mounts as the town's local reporter learns Cork's identity and the reason he's come to Bodine.

William Kent Krueger's COPPER RIVER is a suspenseful, elegantly written story about family and loss and one man's attempt to do the right thing. The right thing, however, might be the wrong thing and this is partly why the novel is so suspenseful. Another reason is that the reader knows something the main characters don't, a strategy that works well in a book that has few chase scenes or shoot-em-up action to ramp up the excitement. In fact, Bodine's slow pace adds another layer of tension as the adults try to figure out what's really going on before another teen is killed.

The author's vivid narrative descriptions, great dialogue, and strong portrayal of psychological turmoil make this a truly compelling story. My only quibble is the predictable timing of the cougar's appearance. Still, Copper River is a terrific read.

Sheriff Cork O'Conner is wounded and hiding out with his cousin, Jewell, after an attempt on his life by a professional hit man. Jewell's fourteen year-old son, Ren, has a best friend, Charlie a tomboy whose father is an alcoholic causing her to occasionally stay at a runaway shelter when her father is at his worst. Ren, Charlie and another friend think they see a body in the river one day. After the body turns up and is identified as another girl from the shelter, Ren and Charlie's friend is struck by a car, Charlie's father is murdered and Charlie is hiding out for her life. In spite of Cork's own dangers, he, with the help of Dina, a friend and former FBI agent, are determined to protect Charlie and find out what is going on.

Although this was less a story of Cork and more focused on Ren and Charlie, all the strengths of Krueger's writing were in evidence. The evocative sense of place, strong characters and dialogue, elements of native America mythology and excellent suspense are hallmarks of Krueger. But after the build up of "Mercy Falls" I felt a bit let down by the lack focus on Cork, interaction with his family, and the somewhat anticlimactic ending of that particular story line. Still, this was a very good book and I am already anxious for the next.

They were professionals hired by a man who believes that former Sheriff Cork O'Connor killed his son. Cork's efforts to reason with this man and prove he is not the culprit land on deaf ears. Thee hit men actually shoot him in the leg, but he escapes barely. Cork knows he needs a place to hide away and heal, but he fears bringing these paid killers to the only possible safe house, his cousin's ranch in remote Bodine, Michigan overlooking the spot where the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior.

Cork manages to reach Jewell DuBois' spread where the widow veterinarian and single mother of thirteen years old Renoir fixes his leg. While Cork is a poor patient worried what he may bring to his cousin and her son, his friends seek to prove his innocence. Meanwhile Ren, his best friend tomboy Charlie, and Stash see the corpse of a teenage girl floating in the Copper River. Unable to resist, Cork investigates what seems a homicide rather than an accident, but his efforts endanger those he cares about especially Ren.

In his latest Upper Peninsular Michigan thriller, William Kent Krueger displays his love for the area with his vivid descriptions that enable the audience to feel they are actually looking out at Lake Superior. The story line is fast-paced though the hero is not due to his leg injury; however, the crime caper lacks some of the freshness, one of the prime strengths of the previous O'Connor Corkers (see MERCY FALLS) as the teens in trouble seems overkill with Cork already bringing peril with him as his companion. Still Mr. Kreuger provides a solid whodunit that showcases the stark beauty of Northern Michigan contrasted with the ugliness of a killer.

Harriet Klausner

In the spirit of full disclosure, I report that Kent is a fellow member of the Minnesota Crime Wave, as well as the critique group I belong to, and we are friends. Having said that, let me assure you that this is a dynamite book. Another in the fine Cork O'Connor series. Those who have read Mercy Falls will naturally want this book since it completes the arc that begins with the previous book. Nevertheless, Copper River is complete within its own covers.

But there is considerably more here than resolution to the turmoil conjured up in Mercy Falls. O'Connor, wounded by a professional killer, goes to ground in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with distant relatives in an uncomfortable situation. Family relationships are always an important part of Krueger's novels. This book also explores some horrific circumstances that effectively demonstrate that our often common view of bucolic small-town life is sometimes at serious odds with reality.

O'Connor, fearing for his family, has taken refuge with the widow of a man he once arrested. While he heals he is drawn inexorably into the life of his nephew and the boy's interesting teen aged companions. That life finally leads to the uncovering of crimes first revealed in one of the most moving open scenes I have ever read in a novel in this or any genre.

Krueger is a fine writer and he knows how to build suspense while telling a good story. But his real strength is in the characters he develops and their interactions. But don't just take the word of this reviewer. Pick up a copy and read the first page. Just the first page. Not the cover copy, or that on the flaps. Just page one. Then decide.

As anyone who has been following this series knows, the is the follow-up to 'Mercy Falls'. What makes it strange is that it's really a totally different story with the last books 'cliffhanger' hanging around until Krueger gets around to it.

Cork has taken off to his 'cousin' in the UP (upper peninsula of Michigan) and sent the family to Evanston, Illinois (to keep them out of harms way). While staying at his cousin's, who happens to be a Vet and treats his gun shot, Cork gets involved with another murder. This one is related to a rape/murder that happened twenty years ago, and the culprits who are still around and back to their old bad ways. This part of the story puts Cork in a subsidiary roll as part of an ensemble, but Krueger does a good job of keeping all the characters up front and there is just a little 'red herring' as to one of the 'bad guys' in the end.

What is disappointing is the way he finished up the cliffhanger. In a three hundred page book, he cleans up 'Mercy River' in twenty pages. Talk about leftovers! Why bother? He could just as easily made it an epilogue in the other book for all the time it took. The only question left hanging is, will Cork quit as Sheriff and return to running Sam's.

Zeb Kantrowitz

This was my eight William Kent Krueger book; my seventh Cork O'Connor book (the 8th book was the fantastic Ordinary Grace--not part of the Cork O'Connor series). Copper River had me hooked at page one and never let go. This book was nearly impossible to put down and if it weren't for sleeping and working, I wouldn't have. Krueger's writing is superb, his characters real, his stories riveting. This could very well be my favorite Cork O'Connor mystery so far. I'll have to read the other and decide!

According to the late Mickey Spillane, "Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book."

There is no better description of William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series than that. Krueger is one of those writers who "the older he gets, the better he writes." Beginning with the first book, "Iron Lake," I've read every one in the series. Krueger was apprehensive about the ending in the 5th book, "Mercy Falls." I think he described it as "risky." In my opinion the risk paid off, because I couldn't wait to read "Copper River," to pick up where "Mercy Falls" ended. As with the previous five books, once I began reading "Copper River," I couldn't put it down until I had finished. I hate coming to the end of Krueger's books. They're that good.

Another edge of your seat mystery from Krueger. Since Cork has been the protagonist in a number of books, I feel like I know him and care what happens to him and his family. This was a very suspenseful book. The only thing that was a little graphic for me was the killing of the dogs... But I still loved the book and will ready any that he writes!

My second book with the Corcoran O'Connor character, actually a continuation in a sense of Mercy Falls. I really liked it. Good suspense and some twists. Great characters. Since this really provides the ending that Mercy Falls didn't have, it was like a book with two endings for the price of one.

William Kent Krueger is one of my favorite authors and I was not disapointed in this book. It is however, a sequel to Mercy Falls (his previous) so I would recommend you read it first so you are aware of the history. They are both stand alone books though so it is an enjoyable read none the less. Good suspense with a double twist at the end.

The sequel (of sorts) to Mercy Falls, Copper River stands on its own feet and is one of the best books in the Cork O'Connor series.

In Mercy Falls Cork is the target of any number of contract killers, chasing a $500K payoff if they can find and kill him. Catching a bullet in his leg he bleeds all over the seat of a car he has purchased and somehow finds the wherewithal to drive to the upper peninsula of Michigan. His cousin, Jewel DuBois, lives there with her son Ren. They have a set of resort cabins which they no longer rent out. Jewel is a veterinarian and a widow; her son Ren has a friend, Charlie (Charlene). Both quirky kids, they understand each other and are fast friends.

When they see a body drifting in the Copper River, their world starts to come apart. Someone is killing young women and whoever they are, they're after Charlie, Ren and one of their friends.

Into this world comes Dina Willner, an ex-FBI `security consultant' who first appeared in Mercy Falls. An ambiguous character there, she is now firmly in Cork's corner and represents some serious firepower for the side of the angels. So far Cork has been lucky in eluding any possible hitmen and he can devote his mental attention to protecting Charlie, Ren and Jewel and trying to solve the murder of the young woman in the river.

Physically, Cork is on the sidelines this time. He is barely ambulatory and his wound has a way of breaking open just when he least needs that to happen. Dina, Ren and Charlie take center stage and they are fully capable of carrying the novel. Krueger has created a series of excellent, fresh characters for Copper River and it would be very nice to see them again. And again.

Krueger always aces his novels' settings and always has interesting characters, many of them repeating characters. In Copper River we get a new cast, a new setting, some horrific bad guys and a complex, driving plot. This is one of my favorite books in the O'Connor series and I have to ask its author a question that must be on the minds of many of his readers. When can we expect a separate series, featuring Dina Millner, her stunning green eyes, Glock, lockpick tools, et al.? (Charlie could also serve as her wily sidekick.) You write them; I'll buy them.

Very highly recommended.