A Novel (Cork O'Connor Mystery Series) - Thunder Bay

The continuing story of the realtionship of the hero and his Indian friend. This book was much better than the previous and kept my attention. I enjoyed the side story of the history of the mining in Minnersota....The family of Cork was more pronounced in this book and added to the depth of the characters.

Thunder Bay is an excellent novel. I really enjoyed reading it. William Kent Krueger keeps you involved in the story. I have read all his books up to this one and will start the next one soon. I highly recommend his work!

I wonder if the authors of the violent blood riddled so called mysteries currently in favor border on being psychopathic? The reason I say this is as a Minnesotan very familiar with Krueger's North Woods environment and his very accurate portrayal of Native American /European descendant relations and also as a father the author is very good. What really upset me big time was his finding it necessary to kill off at the end the one person who should have survived (in my opinion) What, for heavens sake is the matter with a feel good ending?
I recently read a review of an author I liked in which the reviewer gave one star because the writer wrote in the "present tense!!". Give me a break! So I will be just as dumb and give one star because the author had to kill a budding romance and spoil the whole story for me.
I'm going to stick to "cozies" in my old age.

In reading the publishers review it said Copper River was a disappointment. Not true!! I thought it was one of his best books, I loved it, couldn't put it down.

Am looking forward to reading Thunder Bay.

This was a great read until the writer ruined the story by pitching his left wing gun control message. He used distorted comparison of Canada's strict hand gun control with the gun liberty that the US Constitution, Second Amendment allows. A properly trained honest citizen is the best guard against a thug or a government that is not restrained by that Constitution. That is why terrorists and thugs pick gun free zones to conduct a slaughter. There are more people killed each year with hammers than with guns, so lets outlaw hammers. Chicago has some of the most strict gun control laws and this year over 3150 shootings have occurred. The writer's liberal gun grabber preaching just stopped the tempo of the story for me.

Looking at other characters has helped this series come back from a disappointing last entry. The author has put Cork in a situation that energizes the plot and reassures the reader that this series can carry on.

When I first started reading William Kent Krueger, it was the oddest love/hate relationship that I can't even imagine. With his two stand-alone offerings, “Ordinary Grace,” and “The Devil’s Bed,” I loved them. Then I started reading the Cork O’Connor series, then I wasn’t so sure what to think about the man. Did I ever hate Krueger’s work? No, I can’t say that. But with the majority of most series you read, you don’t fully appreciate all of them, and it’s a question as to whether you stick with the author and his hero. I’m sticking with Cork O’Connor!

Cork is a special fellow, and his mentor, Henry Meloux, knows it. To Henry, Cork means the world to this old Ojibwe medicine man, and Cork knows this. It might be safe to say that Cork knows as much about Meloux as you can know. But there’s one thing that he doesn’t know, and that’s that this medicine man has a son somewhere out there. Henry fills Cork in, and Cork does some work, and his work takes him to Canada, to a place called Thunder Bay. And then Henry Meloux and his long lost son can have the happiest reunion in the whole wide world. Right? It isn’t that easy.

There’s people out there that are willing to play deadly games with lives, especially if you ask too many questions about somebody who supposedly doesn’t want to be found. There is Rupert, and he happens to be the brother of Hank, or whatever you choose to call Henry’s son. But there is evil in the hearts of certain men, and there could possibly be a prize as a result of their greed. But even the bad guys have to learn that everything that glitters can sometimes end up deadly.

Sometimes I’ve wondered why I’ve stuck with this series. After “Blood Hollow,” book #4, I was good and pissed, and was ready to leave Cork O’Connor alone. But I didn’t. Then I get to “Copper River,” and then to THIS, “Thunder Bay,” and this is why I stick around. Because Kreuger has only gotten better in this series, and I’m not missing his stories!

Cork O'Conner has just retired as Sherif of Aurora, Minnesota to spend more time with his family. Daughter, Jenny, actually does seem to need more attention as she has decisions to make now that she's graduated from high school. But Cork's good friend, Henry Meloux, the Ojibwe medicine man, asks Cork to help him fine his son whom he's never seen. Cork never knew that he had a son, and that son is now 73 years old, so he wonders at the sudden need to find him. This story goes from present day, to the 1920's to tell Henry's story, back to the present again. When someone tries to kill Henry today, the mystery grows.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of these Cork O'Conner western mysteries. The inner connection between all the peoples in that area have added much to these mysteries. Cork is such a complex character as sherif, family man, park Ojibwe and part white, and outdoorsman. Kruger's writing is spectacular, setting scenery that sets me right there in my immagination. I listened to this on Audible and highly recommend it.

Seventy-three years ago, Ojibwe medicine man Henry Meloux was a very young guide hired by two white men to take care of them during a gold-hunting expedition to southern Ontario. Henry was picked up from his reservation home in Minnesota and flown to the site near Thunder Bay, because the men knew him from an earlier expedition guided by his now dead uncle. Maria Lima, the lovely daughter of one of his employers, fell in love with Henry; and the attraction was mutual. Violence followed. Henry never saw Maria again, and now, all these years later, he talks about her for the first time. He asks private investigator and former Tamarack County sheriff Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor, his good friend, to find the son he is sure he fathered, because his visions tell him that his son needs him.

Cork O'Connor has grown up trusting Henry and Henry's visions. But it's a bad time for him to be away from his own family, as daughter Jenny - newly graduated from high school - faces a crisis. Wally Schanno, who was the county's sheriff after Cork and who has since retired, wants to help Cork with any case that requires an additional person. Wally's wife, Arletta, died less than a year ago after a long battle with dementia. So when Cork and Henry finally set out together for Thunder Bay, Wally accompanies them; and what follows provides an explosive resolution to the long mystery of Henry Meloux's young manhood.

This seems to be the only book in the series written from a first person viewpoint. Normally I hate it when an author changes the "voice" so dramatically in the midst of a series; but in this case it worked so well that adjusting to the change took me only a few minutes. Cork's voice drew me in, and held me through the rest of the story. Henry Meloux has been a regular character in all of the Cork O'Connor books, and this one does an excellent job of providing backstory for an intriguing continuing character. It also handles a transition time in Cork's life as a husband and father, and it resolves Wally Schanno's story, too. Author Krueger has a fine sense of characterization, and he understands small town people and their values. This is one of his best.

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

Another fantastic read by Mr. Krueger, just when you think it can't get any better he delivers another book that you can't put down!! This one was special, if you have followed his main characters in his previous books along the way, just as I you will come to love Henry Meloux the Ojibwe medicine man, and his views on life, nature, and the spiritual world, but as for me you would always like to know more about the mystery behind him. In "Thunder Bay" Krueger unfolds the story and the mystery behind the man. For those of you that have followed Krueger and his main character former sheriff of Aurora, MN, Cork O'Connor, this book will have a special meaning and one that will be special to your heart as a fan of Krueger's! Just like all the rest of his books the story unfolds and along with it much suspense, mystery, and plenty of intrigue sprinkled in. Quite the page turner and one you can't put down. I have read a lot of authors in my life, but Krueger is one of my favorites and one I keep turning back to as I know his books will take me on an adventure that I will always enjoy!!

Corcoran O'Conner is facing parallel situations: in both of them, there is the old story of `boy meets girl - they fall in love - and a baby ensues' However, the differences between them are that one situation took place 70+ years ago between his adopted `uncle' while the other is taking place right now and involves his daughter. In addition to balancing these two, he is also balancing his life between his hamburger stand in the north woods of Minnesota, his past life as the local sheriff, and his wife's career as a lawyer.

This is a mystery thriller so we quickly get drawn into the affairs of his 90+ year old `uncle' (Henry Meloux) and only get occasional glimpses into the current affairs of his daughter and her boyfriend. Meloux has been a father figure to Cork, and so when Meloux is admitted to the hospital because of unspecified problems, Cork rushes over to be told that he needs to find Meloux's son. Cork is given a vague location of somewhere in Canada, and a gold watch that has a picture of a woman in it. Meloux tells his story to Cork and it is a love affair that blossomed briefly between Meloux and a young woman named Maria in the far Canadian woods as Maria's father and an associate searched for gold. When Maria's father finds out about the love affair, he is furious and that is the last that Henry sees or hears of Maria. However, now Meloux has visions that tell him that he had a son by Maria and that son needs his help.

As contrived as this plot may seem, the author manages to pull it off by having his laconic hero start investigating and unravel the story and what transpired in the 73 years between the love affair and the current situation. There are plenty of interesting twists and turns to this story as there are plots within the plot and each of the characters seems to have a double life going on. Nothing is as straightforward as it seems and it is no surprise that many of the people we meet have hidden agendas and follows their own paths.

I was struck by a couple of ironies that bear mention: the first is that when Cork goes to Canada on his last visit, he brings a rifle and comments on how sensible the Canadians are about firearms - they dislike them. However, the final part of the story is an orgy of violence and bloodletting where each actor has hand guns, rifles, and ammunition galore. The body count gets as high as five people in one wild shooting spree - in Canada! The second main irony is that when Henry tells his story of how he met Maria he is airlifted to the Canadian north. In a seaplane. He has no trouble recounting how he pulled on the propeller to start the motor - not once, but twice. However, given the timelines of Henry's life, that must have taken place in the 1920's which did not have too many people flying around in seaplanes! Let alone own one!!

Putting these ironies aside as minor issues, I enjoyed reading this book and thought that the plot was reasonable, reasonably complex, and that the way it ended was acceptably heartwarming. This is clearly part of a series of mysteries or thrillers featuring O'Connor but it can be read as a stand alone book with no problems. I enjoyed this book and hope you will as well.

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't mind."

And yet, the novel is about more than greed, betrayal and suspense. It's about relationships --- between father and son, and between father and daughter. And it is here that Krueger shines. When Henry finally sees his son, Cork notes the old man's uncertainty. "To be a son, to be a father, these things were more than just a blood tie. Maybe that's what the hesitation was about. Did the relationship matter if, in the end, Wellington didn't give a damn?"

The story of Cork and his own family's crisis makes a nice counterpoint to the mystery of Henry Meloux, and Krueger juggles them well. For a "thriller" THUNDER BAY has uncommonly profound, mature and moving things to say about love. You will burn through this book, relishing the twists and turns. But perhaps, if you're like this jaded reviewer, the biggest surprise will be your leaky eyes on the final page.

--- Reviewed by Eileen Zimmerman Nicol

Full disclosure here; Krueger and I often travel together, we're friends and I'm a great admirer of his writing. I'm talking about the award winning Cork O'Connor series, of which this is the sixth. So, readers of this review should be forewarned.

This is a dynamite novel, although not as powerful, perhaps as the previous Mercy Falls. In this latest, the author has reconnected Cork to his family and his roots, that is, Aurora Minnesota, somewhere up in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. He's trying to leave law enforcement to others, organizing a small-town business as a restraunteer in the summer with a little private snooping on the side and in the slow months.

Of course, old friends present new challenges. Henry Meloux, long-time friend, resident Ojibwe medicine man of uncertain age is hospitalized with what appears to be serious heart trouble. Near death, Meloux prevails on Cork to try to find Meloux's son, whom no one in Aurora or on the Reservation had known existed.

So what we have here is a moving and sensitive tale of youthful love, lust and loss in which Krueger ably examines racial, class and generational conflicts. He does so within the fabric of a swiftly paced, rousing adventure that spans international boundaries and several decades. The novel is competently written and the themes of a man searching for another's offspring play out effectively against his own family relationships.

Through all of the previous "Corcoran O'Connor" mysteries, Henry Meloux has hovered in the background like a shadow. It's nice to finally get to know a little more about Henry (like his age, over ninety) and what he was like as a young man.

The novel begins with Henry in the hospital with heart problems. But there isn't anything physically wrong, it's metaphysical. His heart is 'heavy' with the thoughts of never having met his son. Yes, he has a son who is seventy-two, and all he has to find him is the name of the mother and an old watch with her picture.

Henry is not one to ask for anything lightly. So Cork feels duty bound to do his utmost to track down this unknown son. Using the internet, Cork has a remarkably easy time finding the lost child. He sets off with the watch to meet the son and thereby begins our story. The best part of the book is the middle section where we have Henry's backstory.

The ending is sort of predictable, I mean how many endings could there actually be. There are two sidestories that are well handled; one relating to Cork's older daughter Jenny and the other to Wally Schanno, both of which enrich the books texture. A Good Effort.

Zeb Kantrowitz

First Sentence: The promise, as I remember it, happened this way.

Cork O'Conner has his PI license and is back in his home of Aurora, Minnesota when he learns that his good friend, Henry Meloux, is in the hospital. Henry, an Ojebwe healer, shows Cork an old watch containing the picture of a woman, reveals he had a son by this woman, over 70-years ago, and asks Cork to find him. The trail leads Cork to a Hughes-type recluse on a private island with a guard who later tries to kill Cork. The challenge is to get Henry to his son and keep them both alive so Cork can deal with his own family issues.

Krueger is back in form and Cork is back where he should be as well. The middle third of the book focuses on Henry's past, but that adds dimension to the story rather than detracts from it. Henry has always been an intriguing character and I enjoyed learning his story. Krueger still knows how to build suspense and write a thoroughly engrossing story.

After being through with police work, Cork O'Conner runs Sam's Place, a takeout joint and during the winter months he has a private detective's license. His good friend Henry Meloux is hospitalized and asks him to find the son he met in visions, a child he helped conceive over eighty years ago. A little digging on the internet leads him to Toronto native Henry Wellington whose father made Northern Mining and Manufacturing a wealthy and powerful company

Meloux asks Cork to meet with his son and give him a watch with his mother's picture in it. Although it is hard to see the recluse, he manages to meet with him but Wellington is unmoved by his story. Meloux, who is out of the hospital, is attacked by Wellington's bodyguard but the old man kills him. He then asks Cork to take him to meet the son whose visions say he needs him and serve as backup when they finally meet. This meeting upsets someone who is willing to kill to keep some secrets buried.

Any time a Cork O'Connor book is published it is a time for rejoicing. Meloux is an Ojibwe medicine man whose visions always come true so Cork believes him when he insists his son needs him. THUNDER BAY is a story of family secrets, greed and murder, past and present with Cork risking his life to help Meloux. A flashback that tells the tale of Meloux and Henry's mother is fascinating, as the characters make THUNDER BAY a wonderful tale of suspense and mystery.

Harriet Klausner

One of the things that catches my attention and makes me want to come back to an author, again and again, is likeable characters. Krueger has not only written an engrossing mystery, he has captured my attention with Cork O'Conner, former police officer, sheriff, and now a private PI. When Cork's friend, Henry Meloux, shows him a watch containing the picture of a woman and tells him of a son he has never seen, Cork agrees to help find him. His search leads him to an Island where he encounters a recluse, much like Howard Hughes in his later years, and a guard who tries to kill him. Krueger weaves a story where a host of interesting characters keep the plot moving. This book is one you don't want to miss.

Joe Prentis
prentisatpickwick.blogspot.com

Very interesting story in the Cork O'Connor series. They get better with each one. Lots of information about the Ojibwe Indian culture, and a real page-turner. One of those books you can't put down until you finish it. Can't wait to read the next one in the series.

Note: All my recent "reading" is done via audio book.

I spent a lot of summers up in the area of Minnesota where Krueger's books takes place. He's pegged the people characteristics of the area so well its amazing. I'd be laughing well listening....cause I knew that guy....no, that wasn't his name....but I was sure it was him just the same.

Pro: A good story with great characters, not just another who-dunnit. I enjoyed the bit of a "romance tale".

Cons: I wanted a better ending.

I found this story very satisfying as both a mystery, a character study, and a comment on social and economic values. I liked the fact that the character who sets things in motion is quite old, and the child he's looking for is also old: unusual and intriguing. The flashbacks between past and present worked well, and the description of the wilderness made me feel as if I were there. This is one of Kreuger's best mysteries.

I'd read the previous stories in this series and, most of the way through the novel, felt that this was gong to be one of the better ones. Unfortunately that feeling ended as the novel neared its end, when an interesting new character was killed-off, and a messy family situation was resolved way too easily.
[Spoiler alert: What?? He killed off Trinky? What the h*** for? Why did this character have to die? Her death served no purpose, other than perhaps to let the author pat himself on the back for avoiding a 'happy ending'. Is the author worried that he might not be considered a 'serious' writer. Pahh. Instead he commits an even worse sin by conveniently letting the daughter's unwanted pregancy end in a miscarriage. Ohh, puh-lease!]

Besides all of this, where is the storyline in which Cork has to deal with the rape of his wife that had recently occurred? He goes to 'Copper River' briefly and when he gets back, the rape just gets forgotten? No counseling? No grief? No emotional or medical complications?

So to recap: although this was an interesting book, it failed to deal with one major issue from a previous book and it had a very disappointing finish. So, I'm not sure I'll even bother continuing with the series.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought Henry's story was great. Good character development. Also, good sense of place; really felt like I was in the North Woods. Given Cork's past marital problems, I thought his relationship/interaction with his wife Jo was unrealistic. And I thought the resolution of their family problem was too easy. I enjoyed the character Trinky. I was hoping that she'll appear in future books; good character.