A Novel (Cork O'Connor Mystery Series) - Vermilion Drift

Krueger has a fantastic voice. He lands you in the Northern Country immediately, and you're taken in by the wilderness, the people, the rythm of life. It's a fantastic place, very far away from normal life in the city, any city, and the ambience created by the main character's Indian heritage makes it even more intrigueing. Kruger then leads you into a plot that forces you to slow down and stop snitching chocolates at night to keep going, pacing yourself to extend the sheer pleasure of enjoying the book. One of my favorite writers, and this is a good tale.

I really enjoy Cork O'Connor series because the characters are so "real" in their reactions to situations. This one was not an exception although I hesitated to give it a Great rating because I felt the plot was rather contrived and the novel rather longer than it should have been. However, I find the background on the Indians and their rather uneasy, almost hostile, relationships at times with the non-native characters interesting and genuine. This one was especially interesting because Cork is entering a new phase of his life after the death of his wife and the older girls moving away. I will continue the series.

William Kent Krueger knows how to correctly continue a series, and he does so quite well in "Vermilion Drift." After “Heaven’s Keep,” I had to sadly assume that life goes on for Cork O’Connor and company, and Krueger makes sure that the story stays rather dismal, yet hopeful.

There is mining in Tamarack County, and there are deaths that come along with it. Cork, as a PI, reporting to Sheriff Marsha Dross, is on the clock, and looking for answers. Henry Meloux isn’t completely prepared to help Cork in a certain state, but knows that his grieving heart is preparing itself for such a task. And while he is on the case, he has to steel himself for some further truth about his own father, Liam.

Sometimes, things aren’t as they appear, and killers aren’t always the most obvious bunch. But when Cork pushes his luck, he gets results like no other, and even an irritated Sheriff can understand that. Somebody’s going down, and somebody’s going to be exposed!

I’ve grown to love the “Cork O’Connor” series, and I continue to look forward to more. Krueger makes no promises of happy and jolly endings, but he does keep it real. Sometimes it feels all too real, and we walk away saddened, but we keep our eyes open, always hopeful.

Former shefiff of Aurora, Minnesota, Cork O'Connor is hired to look for Lauren Cavanaugh by her brother, Max.

Max is the owner of the Great Northern Mining Company. The Vermilion Drift is one of their deepest mines. Now it is being considered as a dumping site for nuclear waste. Since this would have a major effect on the Ojibwe Indian reservation, many of the Native Americans feel that they are being sold out once again and there are heated protests about the possibility of using the mine in that manner.

After meeting with other mine officials, Max asks Cork to look at something in Vermilion One. They enter the mine and find a note spray pained on the wall, "We die, you die."

Since no one saw the person who did the spray painting enter the mine, Cork believes that there must be a second enterance. While he is searching for this, deep in the mine, he finds a room with six bodies. Five of the bodies have been there for many years but one has recently been placed there. This reminds Cork of The Vanishings.

In 1964, when Cork was a young teenager, two native American teenage girls vanished. Then a rich white woman also disappeared, this was Monique Cavanaugh, Lauren and Max's mother.

In a story deep with Indian folk lore, Cork speaks to his ancient friend, Henry Meloux. Despite advanced age, Henry is a wise man and can sense things. He tells Cork that he knows that things are stirred up on the res and tells Cork who to speak to in order to identify the other two bodies found in the mine.

It is interesting that Cork's father was the sheriff in Aurora when these events were happening and Cork faces a moral dilemma in considering if his father could have been involved.

As always with William Kent Krueger, there are details about the Ojibwe culture and beliefs. Cork is a well described and likable character who the reader will want to succeed in his quest. The story is told as if was pieces of a menu that is eventually laid out for the reader to learn and be entertained by the realistic and dramatic detail.

Very enjoyable story and would have been a five star but for some of the questions in the plot that were too conveniently answered.

I really enjoy Cork O'Connor series because the characters are so "real" in their reactions to situations. This one was not an exception although I hesitated to give it a Great rating because I felt the plot was rather contrived and the novel rather longer than it should have been. However, I find the background on the Indians and their rather uneasy, almost hostile, relationships at times with the non-native characters interesting and genuine. This one was especially interesting because Cork is entering a new phase of his life after the death of his wife and the older girls moving away. I will continue the series.

Private investigator Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor accepts a missing person case, that of philanthropist Lauren Cavanagh, because her brother, Max, wants to keep her disappearance secret if he possibly can. Lauren has disappeared before, many times, but Max says she always stayed in touch with him. This time she hasn't done that. Meanwhile, as Max Cavanagh negotiates with the Federal government about turning the family's closed Vermilion iron mine into a storage facility for nuclear waste, he and others involved receive death threats. Deep inside the mine, someone sprays graffiti matching the inkjet printed threats - in a place where it should have been impossible for anyone to go without management knowing about it. Cork has also been hired to investigate the threats, which puts him at odds with the Ojibwe tribespeople who oppose the nuclear waste plan. This could be a problem for Cork, who had an Ojibwe grandmother. Things get far more complicated when, while checking on a possible "back door" entrance to the mine, Cork stumbles upon an underground chamber that contains corpses. One is freshly killed. The others appear to be very old, and Cork thinks he knows who they are. What puzzles him is how a bullet from his long dead father's service revolver came to be lodged in one body's spine.

This mystery reaches back into Cork O'Connor's childhood, to a period before his father's death in the line of duty as Tamarack County's sheriff. Cork finds his memories of that period largely blank, and he's been having nightmares since his wife, Jo, was murdered. He is adjusting not only to being a widower, but also to having his children with Jo leave the nest - their two daughters are grown women now, and their son is a teenager off on his own summer-long adventure. When the PI and former sheriff promises current sheriff Marsha Dross his help in solving the murders, the recent one and the ones that date back to his father's time in office, he knows he must find a way to remember that other transition and crisis in his life. The time when he was a boy on the verge of becoming a man, and something happened that - he is now increasingly certain - he erased from conscious recollection because he had to do so in order to survive.

Well plotted, well paced, and beautifully written, this tale kept me turning pages and left me feeling satisfied at the end. It's a bit different from the other Cork O'Connor books, but that seems to have been necessary in order for the story to work. I'm pleased that the author of this series found such an effective way to launch Cork into his life as a widower and the father of a grown up family, after all the years during which being Jo's husband and dad to Jenny, Anne, and Stephen centered his emotional life. Reinventing a series in Book 10 takes a kind of creativity not every writer has. Kudos!

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

Vermilion Drift is the tenth book in the Cork Minnesota series. This is my first book by Mr. Krueger, but really didn't have that much difficulty coming into the series.

PI Cork O'Connor is hired by a mining heir to locate his daughter. She's been missing before but something feels off this time. Cork starts his investigation at her art retreat, but there's some serious upheaval going on at the Vermilion One Mine; the government is considering it for long-term nuclear storage.

Then, Cork has dreams about his dad, trying to save him but instead pushing him to his death. So when Cork stumbles upon several skeletal remains in the Vermilion, it brings more memories rushing back. He thinks they may be connected to an unsolved case his dad handled when he was the sheriff.

The reader is taken back to the old case with Cork and his dad, then brought back into the present day with Cork and his current investigation. How the two cases overlap I'll leave for you to read. The Vermilion Drift can be read as a standalone novel, but I think I would have gotten more out of it reading the previous books. I was a bit out of the loop with Cork and his nightmares and I think I would have understood it better at least reading book nine, Heaven's Keep. Mystery and thriller fans will want to snatch this one up and Krueger fans will devour it. Another series I now have to go back and read! Great writing and plot twisting, leaving you turning the pages to see what is around the corner!!

Cork O'Conner has had some adventures in his life. None have come close to this one. The former sheriff turned private investigator is put on the case to find Lauren Cavanaugh, missing sister of millionaire mine owner Max Cavanaugh. Things get even more intense when threatening messages are left at the mine. Suspects are aplenty as the locals haven't been taking too kindly to the prospects of their Vermilion One mine being used to house nuclear waste. But would any of them kidnap Lauren?

Cork's search leads him to the mines...and he finds more than he ever wanted. What he finds in there opens up a forty year old cold case that has ties to Cork's father's days as sheriff, Cork's childhood, and his part-Ojibwe upbringing. Frustratingly, Henry Meloux, his mentor seems to know much more than he is telling. The case twists, turns, and whirls and dives deeper into Cork's past, rattling forty year old skeletons - literally and metaphorically. It all leads to a shocking finish.

Vermilion Drift is Cork O'Conner's tenth recorded adventure, although it's my first time reading of him. William Kent Krueger draws out his storyline well for a standalone novel. Though there was obviously a lot of previous information that could have been drawn on, and perhaps was, this first-time reader never got lost in the current story. The Ojibwe aspects of the story as true to life as the mysterious Henry Meloux quickly became my favorite character.

The novel hinges on suspense and does it well, expertly weaving twists and turns that were unexpected yet perfectly reasonable. Cork's own intimate ties with the case heighten the story, both in Cork and the reader's mind. In the end, the reader is left shook at what the raw power of evil can do.

Mysteries are not easy things to write. Authors tend to tell their readers too much, taking away the mystery and suspense, or tell them nothing at all, leaving them frustrated and confused. Vermilion Drift is the perfect mystery, telling readers just enough to remind them they know nothing. Much like Henry Meloux in the novel, Krueger knows more than he is telling and asks us if we are truly ready to discover the truth. Krueger may have passed unknown to me until now, but I'll be keeping an eye on his work from now on.

As a side note, the book does contain some strong language and sexual references. The language was infrequent and the references tastefully done and integral to the plot. Some sensitive readers may wish to pass because of this, but for those who enjoy a good mystery, this really is a great book.

Authors of crime fiction, like authors working in any other genre, often use their talents to work through personal issues, sometimes intensely private issues. Although it is not entirely clear, the writer may be working through some family issues with this novel. Does that matter?

Perhaps. That depends on the result. In this case, the author, possessed of well-honed, significant writing talent, has produced a novel of finely wrought proportions, multi-layered with considerable depth. By that I mean that the characters demonstrate multiple levels of engagement, and the story itself works on more than one level. Almost every character who appears in the book is involved in the story in more than one way. Some of their levels are casual or socially related, such as what may be routinely expected of law officers in Tamarack County, the Northern Minnesota location of this novel. Other characters, Henry Meloux, for example and other Native Americans; Sam Wintermoon, appears, and of course, Cork's mother and his father, Liam, all have, at different times, visceral involvement in the story.

The problem, if there is one, is that this story is much more a novel of family and community relationships than it is a novel of suspense, or crime, horrific and awful though the crimes were. Death is always the ultimate judge, from whom there is no appeal.

So, in my view, the problem is one of balance, or perhaps of categorization. The involvement of Cork O'Connor, now a private investigator, alone in Aurora, is mostly one of self-examination. The novel is one of Cork's journey of discovery. What was the meaning of his occasional nightmares? What were the issues that consumed and separated the O'Connor family in those last fateful months of Liam O'Connor's life?

The novel begins with Cork once again at odds with his Ojibwe heritage. His mother, remember, was a member of the tribe. He's hired by the owners of the Vermilion One and Ladyslipper mines to deal with threats against the mine. But then he's also tasked to try to locate a missing woman, sister of the mine owner. Lauren Cavanaugh has gone missing. Finding the missing woman opens a window on old unsolved crimes from a previous generation, from a time when Cork's father was the sheriff of Tamarack County.

Sorting through old albums, records and memories, fresh and repressed, takes up the body of the novel As with all of this author's previous novels, the explanation is logical, satisfying and meaningful. Krueger, as always, is skillful in evoking the landscape, not just its physical self, but its atmosphere, its mystical presence and its influences on the people who reside there.

In the end, this thoughtful exploration of law, truth and justice and their profound influences on all of us is a highly successful emotionally moving effort.

Mining heir Max Cavanagh hires Tamarack County, Minnesota private investigator Cork O'Connor to find his missing sister, Lauren. She established an artists' retreat so Cork starts there. He also looks into who is threatening people involved in the Cavanagh Vermilion One mine that U.S. Department of Energy evaluates as a potential nuclear waste storage site.

Cork and a mine official descend into the Vermilion One mine where they find five skeletons and a fresh corpse. The quintet is probably the remains of the 1964 "the Vanishings" that Cork's father Liam as county sheriff unsuccessfully investigated. The sixth body buried in the mine for about a week is that of a well-dressed woman, who Cork assumes is Lauren.

The tenth Cork Minnesota investigative thriller (see Red Knife and Heaven's Keep) is a terrific whodunit as a homicidal cold case of the hero's father merges with a present day murder. The whodunit is well written hooking the readers early on with trying to find the connection between the deaths over four decades apart. With a bit of Native American mysticism enhancing the plot, fans will appreciate this strong regional mystery.

Harriet Klausner

In a perfect display of a not-unreasonable NIMBY mindset [Not In My Backyard}, most of the residents of Tamarack County, Minnesota and the surrounding Iron Lake area are up in arms, almost literally, when plans are announced to consider converting the long-closed [and fictional] Vermilion Mine to a nuclear waste site. In the midst of the protests arising out of this plan, Cork O'Connor is hired by Max Cavanaugh to find his sister. Max says she has been missing for a week. Describing her as "flamboyant" and "like sunshine if it had a voice," he begs Cork, former Tamarack County Sheriff [as was his father before him] and, now in his early 50's, working as a p.i., to find her. No ransom demand has been received, as might have been expected if it was a kidnapping - the family had founded the Great North Mining Company in 1887 and the name was synonymous with iron mining and wealth. But Lauren Cavanaugh was known to take off for distant places, both in the US and outside of the country, whenever the spirit moved her, complicating matters.

Cork's mind and heart, as the book opens, are still filled with grief over this wife's murder a little over a year before, as well as recent and pervasive nightmares regarding his father's death over forty years ago. When the investigation into the whereabouts of the missing woman leads to a shocking discovery, the ensuing events lead Cork right back to that exact time period. Coming as it does at a time when he is particularly vulnerable, with his beloved Jo dead and his 3 kids away from the nest, he thinks. "With Jo gone and the kids away, what held him to this place was history. And what was history but memory? And of what value, in the end, was a memory? A man's life needed to be made of stuff more immediate and substantial. Cork wondered what that was for him now." By the end of the novel, Cork and the reader find an answer to that enigma. The Indian culture [Cork is part Ojibwe], as always, is an integral part of this 10th entry in the series, as is the North Country itself, in all its endangered glory.

Highly recommended.

William Kent Krueger is an "author's author"; he is perhaps better known and read among literary critics and his peers in the trenches than he is among the reading public. While he has amassed a mantel full of awards for many of his novels, he also arguably has not achieved the commercial success that should accompany the sort of favorable critical recognition he has garnered. VERMILION DRIFT, his latest effort, hopefully will change that set of circumstances

Krueger's beat is Minnesota, and his primary protagonist is troubled but dogged Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor. A resident of Tamarack County, Minnesota, for most of his life, Cork was at one point the county sheriff, a position that his late father, killed in the line of duty, held before him. Cork is now a private investigator, a vocation that sets VERMILION DRIFT upon twin tracks as the book opens. A local iron ore mine known as Vermilion has been shortlisted as a potential site for nuclear waste disposal, a situation that does not sit well with local residents and results in a barrage of protests accompanied by anonymous threats. Given his background in law enforcement, Cork is retained by Max Cavanaugh, the mine's owner, as a security consultant.

Max also hires him to investigate a more personal matter. His sister Lauren, a mainstay in the local artiste community, has gone missing. Although Lauren is described by her brother as "flamboyant" and prone to vanish on a whim, this disappearance is different, given that she has been missing for an extended period with no credit card or cell phone activity. The issue is quickly resolved with the grisly discovery of several bodies in a long-forgotten tunnel in Vermilion One, which also reopens a cold case that had plagued the elder O'Connor's career as county sheriff and caused an unfortunate rift between father and son.

A series of disappearances of Indian women in the area became known as "The Vanishings" and included a young Indian girl who was the subject of a serious crush on Cork, who came to feel that his father did not do enough to investigate. For Cork and his successor at the sheriff's office, there are both old and new reasons for obtaining justice for the victims, not the least of which is that a murderer has apparently returned to Tamarack County after several decades and may well strike again.

VERMILION DRIFT is a significant entry in this long-running series. While much has gone before, Krueger does an excellent job providing newcomers with enough information, when and where it is needed, to get them up to speed. Much is revealed concerning the demons that Cork has been dealing with, so that his past is put paid to in a beautifully written scene that closes one door while potentially opening another. There is also the introduction of a new character whose arrival may herald a change for the better with regard to his personal life.

Longtime fans of Krueger will find their loyalty more than rewarded with VERMILION DRIFT, while readers who are new to the series will find this installment the perfect place to jump on. As for Krueger, it may be necessary for him to interrupt the writing of his next mystery just long enough to make some additional room over his fireplace. I have the feeling he is going to need it.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Cork O'Connor's father, the sheriff during a time (1964) when five local people in Tamarack County, Minnesota went missing, attempted an investigation. Yet to the locals, his efforts to solve the vanishings appeared futile. Leaving no trace, what really happened to these missing persons became a dreaded unsolved mystery. Had they simply left the area; was foul play involved: did they lie dead somewhere? By the time Cork O'Connor Jr. served his time as sheriff, the vanishings were hazy faded horrors of a dead past.

Now, Cork O'Connor is no longer sheriff. As a private investigator, he is hunting the missing sister of the owner of a mine located next to Vermilion Drift. The United States government has been seeking mines as depositories of nuclear waste materials. Because of these deadly contents and fearing uncertain nuclear contamination, residents who live around Vermilion Drift are protesting loudly. Violence has not erupted, but it is clear that protestors mean business.

While examining the interior of Vermilion Drift mine, a putrid smell leads a government official and her crew to discover five skeletal bodies in a hidden, closed off cavern inside the mine. With them is the decaying corpse of a recently murdered woman. Common sense and forensic examination indicate the skeletons have been lying dead, probably at least forty years. The bones of some of these skeletons have knife-like cuts in them, indicating some type of sharp knife slashed all the way into the bone. Yet other evidence shows these lesions were not the cause of death. Forensics also finds that a single bullet at close range killed the decaying woman.

What is the connection between the five skeletons from the past and the most recent killing? Cork becomes deeply involved in the case for two reasons. First, the decaying corpse in the mine was the sister of a nearby mine owner. Second, it has become increasingly evident that Cork's father knew more about the five skeletal remains than he ever admitted. In fact, a recovered shell from his handgun was responsible for at least one of the skeleton's deaths.
The story turns rapidly toward the macabre. Cork relies on his lifelong Indian Sage to help him recall deeply hidden subconscious memories. What surfaces is a sequence of events where he remembers details from his childhood. He remembers his father confronting a mysterious woman who holds his wife (Cork's mother) at knifepoint. He recalls hearing the awful screams of a victim who is tortured mercilessly before being murdered. He even recalls being captured and shackled to a wall to await torture and death to satisfy the strange psycho sexual urgings of a demented woman and man.

This story is highly engaging. Why? There is probably an equal amount of dialogue and narrative. Learning the story from spoken words of Vermilion Drift characters paints an image of their minds which is far more realistic than simply reading about these characters. From the description above, one might think the book is gory. It is not. It dwells more on the mental astuteness and acuity of its characters and their feelings in horrible situations rather than blood-curdling descriptions of what is actually taking place.

I would highly recommend Vermilion Drift to suspense, mystery lovers as a fascinating story where, from its initial pages, there is a definite chill that runs through the tale until its ending. This is not a common mystery novel. This is a completely unique stand-alone storyline with characters you will get to know from the inside out--and I do mean the inside.

Vermilion Drift will not disappoint. I look forward to reading other stories by William Krueger.

Review written by Regis Schilken
Author of:
Tears of Deceit

Other Interesting Books:
Red Knife: A Novel (Cork O'Connor Mysteries)
[[ASIN:141655677X Heaven's Keep: A Novel (Cork O'Connor Mysteries)

Vermilion Drift by William Kent Krueger is the tenth book in the Cork O'Connor series. Cork is still recovering after his wife Jo's murder and is feeling a bit lost as all of his three children are far from home. No longer sheriff of Tamarack County, Minnesota, he's now a private investigator, hired to look into threats against an old iron mine that the government is considering as storage for nuclear waste. The local Ojibwa consider him to be betraying his own blood by working on a case that will damage the environment, but things get suddenly much worse when while searching the mine tunnel known as Vermilion Drift, he discovers six bodies, five of whom have been dead for over forty years, but one is the body of a woman he had just been hired to find. Even worse, two of the bodies were killed by a bullet that came from Cork's gun, the one he inherited from his father, another former Tamarack County sheriff. While there is lots of history in this superb mystery, it's not necessary to have read the previous books in the series (although after reading this, I certainly want to), because Krueger expertly weaves Cork's personal history with that of the town. He has a different personality from most detectives; while he does have the usual tendency of going rogue, he's more interested in talking to people and discovering truth than he is meting out personal justice. There are lots of twists and turns as well as red herrings to keep readers guessing and second guessing, and the resolution is satisfying and provides some long-term healing for Cork. Vermilion Drift is suspenseful without being overtly violent, and intelligent without being pretentious. It's a literary mystery with a stand-out hero.

I am writing this review with tears still flowing gently down my face. Mr. Krueger's writing brings the main character, Cork O'Connor, alive in such a way that the reader feels as though they are experiencing things along with him. I recommend keeping a hanky at hand at all times.

This adventure picks up several months after the end of "Heaven's Keep" and is the only other of Mr. Krueger's books that I have read. Mr. Krueger's writing style is so much different than my normal experience with mystery writers. That being said, I'm starting to enjoy it and take in the short descriptions without as much distraction as I did before. This means that I am growing as a reader instead of stagnating. Thank you, Mr. Krueger for that and for taking me along on this adventure. I hope many others will join us.

Now I guess the next step is for me to return this book to the library and get one of his other books to read.

Vermillion Drift by William Kent Krueger

This is much more than a murder mystery. It is a murder mystery in both the past and the present but in addition it is an anthropological cultural exploration of conflict and enlightenment.

Cork is a troubled soul who discovers as much about himself as he does the murders in the book. Cork is a likeable character fraught with self doubt. Keeping one foot in his cultural roots and the other in "normal" society proves difficult.

Krueger posed an intricate mystery with implacable and in some case pathetic foes. The mysticism was well done and not overblown. His characters were painted with clarity and panache.

It is easy to see why Krueger sells well, it was an intriguing book that captured my interest and held it until the end.

I highly recommend it.

I have read all ten books. Not surprisingly, some work better than others. The last three for sure have issues with credibility. They just ask the reader to suspend too much disbelief. Vermillion Drift seems adrift in the manner in which the first homicide keeps getting explained. Isn't there an adage about too many cooks spoil the broth? In this case, too many murder suspects, or rather, too many hands on the trigger spoil credibility. Recovered memories, Native rituals, and a protagonist who abandons police procedures and common sense all end up demanding way more from the reader than anyone should demand.

What is wonderfully drawn, however, is his descriptions of life near Minnesota's Boundary Waters. It is a stunningly beautiful landscape and Kreuger captures it in such a way as to render it attractive. Having visited this area a number of times, I am swept up into the author's sense of place. Kreuger also has a fine ear for dialogue, particularly for his leading characters.

The plot of this book could have been more straightforward, less dependent on coincidence, and stripped of a number of horror-house gimmicks and still held the reader's interest.

Normally I would have thrown this book to the wall for it's slow slow start, the many backstory aspects, the info dumps and scene settings, but by the time I hit the midway part the protagonist began to be more interesting. I like my mysteries, especially PI mysteries, to have faster pacing. All the Ojibwe mumbo jumbo and lost secrets were a bit disconcerting. Also way too many characters to keep straight. Still the essential plot was excellent, the writing well done (if over written here & there) and the last 50 pages downright excellent. Halfway in I felt I was in a 2 star book. By the end there was plenty to think about in what was revealed. 300 pages here could be 200 and it would be far better. I haven't read any others in the series. Barely 4 stars.

"Vermilion Drift" is nicely written with some passages any writer would be happy with - comparing a wagging tail to a metronome gone wild, and noting the two sunrises, in the sky, and then as a reflection on a lake. The novel is also interesting without being a page turner, so it can be read at night. It is not the first in a series, but that is not a problem as it turns out. One theme is evil due to an absence of empathy, which happens to be the subject of a well reviewed new non-fiction work: "Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty" by Simon Baron-Cohen.

This story is filled with many of the deep understandings and insights of Henry Meloux, giving me much food for thought. The explanations of evil felt very right.
The story, itself, was well laid out, and held together perfectly. The actual writing style and beautiful descriptions made this one of my very favorites in the cork O'Connor series.

This is the first Krueger novel I have tried, but I like this genre and he writes it very well. Good story, believable characters. The book was acutally recommended to me and I picked it up before I remembered that it was. Maybe it was the title and cover art that did it. Anyway, if you like the thriller , good-guy loner type story, you'll like this one. I'll have to give the rest of the Cork O'Conner series a read.

When I first started reading, it didn't seem like his usual, but all of a sudden I was caught up in it and just couldn't put it down! I do hope that Cork O'Connor is finally at peace and finds a new love inter!