By Paul Carrier
William Kent Krueger has created a winning formula with his mystery series starring Corcoran “Cork” O’Connor, the on-again off-again sheriff of rural (and fictional) Tamarack County in northern Minnesota. There are over 20 novels in the series — or will be with the publication of the 21st book this September.
A former Chicago cop who returned to his Minnesota roots by settling in his hometown of Aurora, Cork wears a sheriff’s badge once again in the fifth novel, following a forced exile that, for a time, left him running a lakeside burger joint near his home.
In Mercy Falls, the sheriff and a female deputy head out to investigate a possible domestic dispute. When they arrive at the home of Lucy Tibodeau, who supposedly made the call, Deputy Marsha Dross is shot and seriously wounded as she steps out from behind the wheel. The cabin, meanwhile, is empty.
The shot was fired from some distance, and Cork is convinced he was the intended target; Cork reasons that the shooter probably assumed the sheriff would be driving the cruiser. Lucy, upon returning home, denies having placed the call to the sheriff’s office. Someone impersonated her on the phone to lure Cork to the cabin.
Krueger has created a complex and believable world in the O’Connor novels, both in terms of the people who populate Tamarack County and the setting. In fact, the region itself is a central character. Cork’s turf is located near an actual wilderness area known as the Boundary Waters, a massive expanse west of Lake Superior that covers portions of northern Minnesota and southern Ontario.
Although Tamarack County is rural, it is not exclusively white. Indigenous Anishinaabe people live there too, notably Ojibwe (aka, Chippewa) who have a reservation and play a prominent role, at least in the early novels. The shooting of Dross occurred on the reservation. And a subsequent murder claims the life of Eddie Jacoby who, before he was stabbed to death, had been trying to persuade the Ojibwe to hire his management firm to run their casino.
Cork pulls together a solid team to investigate the shooting and the fatal stabbing, but even as progress is being made, key questions remain. It turns out the shooter who injured the sheriff’s deputy was a hired gun. And when a seemingly credible suspect in Jacoby’s murder has to be ruled out, it’s back to square one in that case.
Despite the time-consuming, and sometimes dangerous, demands of his job, Cork is a devoted family man, and his wife and three children provide a valuable counterpoint to the ongoing investigations.
Cork’s wife, Jo, is an attorney, and she and Cork both have ties to the Ojibwe, either professionally or personally. Jo often represents the local band of the tribe. As for Cork, he’s part Ojibwe, thanks to a grandmother who was a full-blooded tribal member. To an extent, that leaves him torn between two worlds. “When people are pissed at me,” Cork says, “I’m not Ojibwe enough for the Ojibwes, and not white enough for the whites.”
As the criminal investigations continue, Jo’s life — and Cork’s too — suddenly become more complicated when Ben Jacoby, the murder victim’s brother, arrives in Aurora following his brother’s death. Long before Jo met Cork, she and Ben were lovers as law school students.
Krueger packs plenty of action into Mercy Falls. As if one shooting and one murder aren't enough, a second murder occurs. Even when it eventually becomes clear who committed all three crimes, Cork’s life remains in jeopardy when an old, vengeful and misguided man blessed with great wealth but no sense puts a $500,000 bounty on Cork’s head. There's no denying that Krueger knows how to keep readers turning the pages.
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