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Boundary Waters
Iron Lake (20th Anniversary Edition)
Blood Hollow
Audiobook series19 titles

Cork O'Connor Mysteries Series

Written by William Kent Krueger

Narrated by David Chandler

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this series

Cork O'Connor, the retired sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota, is in a race against time to save the people he loves from ruthless mercenaries in this riveting new novel from New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger.

The ancient Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux has had a vision of his death. As he walks the Northwoods in solitude, he tries to prepare himself peacefully for the end of his long life.

But peace is destined to elude him as hunters enter the woods seeking a woman named Dolores Morriseau, a stranger who had come to Henry for shelter and the gift of his wisdom.

Meloux guides this stranger and his great niece, Cork O’Connor’s wife, to safety deep into the Boundary Waters, his home for more than a century. On the last journey he may ever take into this beloved land, Meloux must do his best to outwit the deadly mercenaries who follow.

Meanwhile, in Aurora, Cork works feverishly to identify the hunters and the reason for their relentless pursuit, but he has little to go on. In desperation, Cork begins tracking the killers, but his own skills in the wild are severely tested by a late season snowstorm. He
knows only too well that with each passing hour time is running out. His fiercest enemy in this deadly game of cat and mouse may be his own deep self-doubt about his ability to save those he loves. Fox Creek is an intensely gripping and richly imagined addition to a masterful series.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 14, 2010
Boundary Waters
Iron Lake (20th Anniversary Edition)
Blood Hollow

Titles in the series (19)

  • Blood Hollow

    4

    Blood Hollow
    Blood Hollow

    Multiple Anthony Award winner William Kent Krueger returns to Minnesota's North Woods country for another chilling entry in his Cork O'Connor series. In this thrilling mystery, former sheriff Cork O'Connor confronts the paranormal while investigating baffling murders. After 17-year-old Charlotte Kane-the beautiful, brilliant, and brooding daughter of a rich widower-disappears on a drunken New Years' Eve snowmobile ride, a raging blizzard soon snuffs out all search efforts. When her body is found during the spring thaw four months later, preliminary evidence implicates her ex-boyfriend-Ojibwe bad-boy, Solemn Winter Moon. But then a second Charlotte Kane turns up dead, and Cork isn't sure of anything any more. David Chandler's riveting narration of this hair-raising novel highlights the mystical elements in an electrifying tale of intrigue and foreboding. Listeners certainly won't want to miss Krueger's acclaimed Copper River. "Krueger skillfully crafts enough plot twists to keep everybody guessing through the bloody climax to the thrilling end."-Publishers Weekly "[Blood Hollow] takes Krueger's work to an entirely new level. The prose is so good and the plotting so deft that readers will be hard put to stop reading once they begin."-Chicago Sun-Times

  • Boundary Waters

    2

    Boundary Waters
    Boundary Waters

    Drawing strong comparisons to the work of James Lee Burke and Tony Hillerman, William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor mysteries never fail to please fans. Here Cork joins the search for a country-western singer who has disappeared in the wilderness along the American/Canadian border. "Krueger's writing, strong and bold yet with the mature mark of restraint, pulls this exciting search-and-rescue mission through with a hard yank."-Publishers Weekly

  • Iron Lake (20th Anniversary Edition)

    1

    Iron Lake (20th Anniversary Edition)
    Iron Lake (20th Anniversary Edition)

    Anthony Award-winning author William Kent Krueger crafts this riveting tale about a small Minnesota town's ex-sheriff who is having trouble retiring his badge. Cork O'Connor loses his job after being blamed for a tragedy on the local Anishinaabe Indian reservation. But he must set aside his personal demons when a young boy goes missing on the same day a judge commits suicide-and no one but O'Connor suspects foul play.

  • Purgatory Ridge

    3

    Purgatory Ridge
    Purgatory Ridge

    William Kent Krueger is the award-winning author of the popular Cork O'Connor mysteries. In Purgatory Ridge, Krueger crafts a riveting tale which has ex-sheriff O'Connor on the case after a heated town debate turns deadly. The local Anishinaabe Indian tribe is furious to discover that Karl Lindstrom's lumber mill is after a grove of trees sacred to tribal lore. So when the mill gets bombed, killing a man, the tribe is blamed. But O'Connor has a different theory.

  • Copper River

    6

    Copper River
    Copper River

    William Kent Krueger has won two Anthony Awards for his gripping Cork O'Connor mysteries. Set in remote areas of the northwest, each book in the series launches the Minnesota lawman into challenges that push his endurance to new limits. Part Irish, part Native-American, Sheriff Cork O'Connor serves the remote territory of Tamarack County, Minnesota. But big trouble is brewing: a powerful man believes O'Connor killed his son. Now there's a price on the sheriff's head and a bullet in his leg. He finds refuge with his cousin, Jewell, and her teenage son, Ren, in their tiny Michigan town. But when Ren and his friends are threatened, O'Connor must risk his cover to find out why. Copper River opens with a terrifying scene that sets the tone for the suspense that grows stronger with each succeeding chapter. The narrator's taut performance underscores O'Connor's vulnerability and his vigilance. "Krueger has moved to the head of the crime fiction class."-Chicago Sun-Times

  • Mercy Falls

    5

    Mercy Falls
    Mercy Falls

    Best-selling author William Kent Krueger thrills millions with this Anthony Award-winning entry in his compelling series that already includes Anthony Award winners Iron Lake and Blood Hollow. Still troubled by an ambush that leaves his deputy lingering near death, Sheriff Cork O'Conner must investigate the mutilation murder of a Chicago businessman. Soon Cork finds himself distracted by the lovely female shadowing him and the handsome man stalking his wife. ". a smart and satisfying mystery ."-Booklist

  • Vermilion Drift

    10

    Vermilion Drift
    Vermilion Drift

    Some nights, Corcoran O'Connor dreams his father's death. William Kent Krueger's gripping tale of suspense begins with a recurring nightmare, a gun, and a wound in the earth so deep and horrific that it has a name: Vermilion Drift. When the Department of Energy puts an underground iron mine on its short list of potential sites for storage of nuclear waste, a barrage of protest erupts in Tamarack County, Minnesota, and Cork is hired as a security consultant. Deep in the mine during his first day on the job, Cork stumbles across a secret room that contains the remains of six murder victims. Five appear to be nearly half a century old-connected to what the media once dubbed "The Vanishings," a series of unsolved disappearances in the summer of 1964, when Cork's father was sheriff in Tamarack County. But the sixth has been dead less than a week. What's worse, two of the bodies-including the most recent victim-were killed using Cork's own gun, one handed down to him from his father. As Cork searches for answers, he must dig into his own past and that of his father, a well-respected man who harbored a ghastly truth. Time is running out, however. New threats surface, and unless Cork can unravel the tangled thread of clues quickly, more death is sure to come. Vermilion Drift is a powerful novel, filled with all the mystery and suspense for which Krueger has won so many awards. A poignant portrayal of the complexities of family life, it's also a sobering reminder that even those closest to our hearts can house the darkest-and deadliest-of secrets.

  • Heaven's Keep

    9

    Heaven's Keep
    Heaven's Keep

    Intrepid hero Cork O'Connor faces the most harrowing mission of his life when a charter plane carrying his wife, Jo, goes missing in a snowstorm over the Wyoming Rockies. Months after the tragedy, two women show up on Cork's doorstep with evidence that the pilot of Jo's plane was not the man he claimed to be. It may not be definitive proof, but it's a ray of light in the darkness. Agreeing to investigate, Cork travels to Wyoming, where he battles the interference of local law enforcement who may be on the take, the open hostility of the Northern Arapaho, who have much to lose if the truth is known, and the continuing attempts on his life by assassins who shadow his every move. At the center of all the danger and deception lies the possibility that Jo's disappearance was not the end of her, that somewhere along the labyrinthine path of his search, maybe even in the broad shadow of Heaven's Keep itself, Cork will find her alive and waiting for him.

  • Thunder Bay

    7

    Thunder Bay
    Thunder Bay

    In William Kent Krueger's "finest work" (Michael Connelly), detective Cork O'Connor unravels a mystery for his old friend Henry Meloux, only to get caught in the blistering crossfire of jealousy and revenge. The promise, as I remember it, happened this way. Happy and content in his hometown of Aurora, Minnesota, Cork O'Connor has left his badge behind and is ready for a life of relative peace, setting up shop as a private investigator. But his newfound state of calm is soon interrupted when Henry Meloux, an Ojibwe medicine man and Cork's spiritual adviser, makes a request: Will Cork find the son that Henry fathered long ago? With little to go on, Cork uses his investigative skills to locate Henry Wellington, a wealthy and reclusive industrialist living in Thunder Bay, Ontario. When a murder attempt is made on old Meloux's life, all clues point north across the border. But why would Wellington want his father dead? This question takes Cork on a journey through time as he unravels the story of Meloux's 1920s adventure in the ore-rich wilderness of Canada, where his love for a beautiful woman, far outside his culture, led him into a trap of treachery, greed, and murder. The past and present collide along the rocky shores of Thunder Bay, where a father's unconditional love is tested by a son's deeply felt resentment, and where jealousy and revenge remain the code among men. As Cork hastens to uncover the truth and save his friend, he soon discovers that his own life is in danger and is reminded that the promises we keep-even for the best of friends-can sometimes place us in the hands of our worst enemies.

  • Red Knife

    8

    Red Knife
    Red Knife

    Private investigator Cork O'Connor finds himself caught in the middle of a racial gang war that's turning picturesque Tamarack County, Minnesota, into a battlefield. When the daughter of a powerful businessman dies as a result of her meth addiction, her father, strong-willed and brutal Buck Reinhardt, vows revenge. His target is the Red Boyz, a gang of Ojibwe youths accused of supplying the girl's fatal drug dose. When the head of the Red Boyz and his wife are murdered in a way that suggests execution, the Ojibwe gang mobilizes, and the citizens of Tamarack County brace themselves for war, white against red. Both sides look to Cork O'Connor, a man of mixed heritage, to uncover the truth behind the murders. A former sheriff, Cork has lived, fought, and nearly died to keep the small-town streets and his family safe from harm. He knows that violence is never a virtue, but he believes that it's sometimes a necessary response to the evil that men do. Racing to find answers before the bloodshed spreads, Cork himself becomes involved in the darkest of deeds. As the unspeakable unfolds in the remote and beautiful place he calls home, Cork is forced to confront the horrific truth: violence is a beast that cannot be contained. In Red Knife, Krueger gives his readers a vivid picture of racial conflict in small-town America, as well as a sensitive look at the secrets we keep from even those closest to us and the destructive nature of all that is left unsaid between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, friends and lovers.

  • Tamarack County

    13

    Tamarack County
    Tamarack County

    William Kent Krueger is a New York Times best-selling author whose popular Cork O'Connor mysteries display an "intimate knowledge of Minnesota's northern reaches and respect for Native American life" (Publishers Weekly). In Tamarack County, former sheriff Cork O'Connor investigates the disappearance of a retired judge's wife--and discovers the bloody aftermath of a 20-year-old crime.

  • Trickster's Point

    12

    Trickster's Point
    Trickster's Point

    New York Times best-selling author William Kent Krueger has won numerous accolades for his books, including the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. InTrickster's Point, the 12th suspenseful installment in Krueger's Cork O' Connor series, Cork is framed for the murder of Minnesota's first Native American governor-elect, Jubal Little. As Cork fights to clear his name and uncover the truth, he discovers that events from his own past may hold the key to the real killer's identity.

  • Windigo Island

    14

    Windigo Island
    Windigo Island

    Cork O'Connor battles vicious villains, both mythical and modern, to rescue a young girl in the latest nail-biting mystery from New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger. When the body of a teenage Ojibwe girl washes up on the shore of an island in Lake Superior, the residents of the nearby Bad Bluff reservation whisper that it was the work of a deadly mythical beast, the Windigo, or a vengeful spirit called Michi Peshu. Such stories have been told by the Ojibwe people for generations, but they don't explain how the girl and her friend, Mariah Arceneaux, disappeared a year ago. At the request of the Arceneaux family, Cork O'Connor, former sheriff turned private investigator, takes on the case. But on the Bad Bluff reservation, nobody's talking. Still, Cork puts enough information together to find a possible trail. He learns that the old port city of Duluth is a modern-day center for sex trafficking of vulnerable women, many of whom are young Native Americans. As the investigation deepens, so does the danger. Yet Cork holds tight to his higher purpose-his vow to find Mariah, an innocent fifteen-year-old girl whose family is desperate to get her back. With only the barest hope of saving her from men whose darkness rivals that of the legendary Windigo, Cork prepares for an epic battle that will determine whether it will be fear, or love, that truly conquers all.

  • Northwest Angle

    11

    Northwest Angle
    Northwest Angle

    With his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, detective Cork O'Connor must solve the murder of a young girl in the latest installment of William Kent Krueger's unforgettable New York Times bestselling series. With his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, detective Cork O'Connor must solve the murder of a young girl in William Kent Krueger's latest unforgettable New York Times bestseller. During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm. Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover the body of a teenage girl. She wasn't killed by the storm, however; she'd been bound and tortured before she died. Nearby, underneath a tangle of branches, they also find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive. Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle, where it's impossible to tell who among the residents is in league with the devil, but Cork understands that to save his family he must solve the puzzle of this mysterious child whom death follows like a shadow.

  • Manitou Canyon

    15

    Manitou Canyon
    Manitou Canyon

    "One of today's automatic buy-today-read-tonight series...thoughtful but suspenseful, fast but lasting, contemporary but strangely timeless." (Lee Child) In the extraordinary new Cork O'Connor thriller from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author William Kent Krueger, the lives of hundreds of innocent people are at stake when Cork vanishes just days before his daughter's wedding. Since the violent deaths of his wife, father, and best friend all occurred in previous Novembers, Cork O'Connor has always considered it to be the cruelest of months. Yet, his daughter has chosen this dismal time of year in which to marry, and Cork is understandably uneasy. His concern comes to a head when a man camping in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness goes missing. As the official search ends with no recovery in sight, Cork is asked by the man's family to stay on the case. Although the wedding is fast approaching and the weather looks threatening, he accepts and returns to that vast wilderness on his own. As the sky darkens and the days pass, Cork's family anxiously awaits his return. Finally certain that something has gone terribly wrong, they fly by floatplane to the lake where the missing man was last seen. Locating Cork's campsite, they find no sign of their father. They do find blood, however. A lot of it. With an early winter storm on the horizon, it's a race against time as Cork's family struggles to uncover the mystery behind these disappearances. Little do they know, not only is Cork's life on the line, but so are the lives of hundreds of others. A taut, suspenseful thriller, Manitou Canyon features everything readers love in a Cork O'Connor novel: a dramatic Northwoods setting, an intriguing view of the Objibwe culture, an enigmatic crime, masterful storytelling, and more than a few surprises.

  • Desolation Mountain

    17

    Desolation Mountain
    Desolation Mountain

    New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger delivers yet another "punch-to-the-gut blend of detective story and investigative fiction" (Booklist, starred review) as Cork O'Connor and his son Stephen work together to uncover the truth behind the tragic plane crash of a senator on Desolation Mountain and the mysterious disappearances of several first responders. This is a heart-pounding and devastating mystery the scope and consequences of which go far beyond what father or son could ever have imagined. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. To Stephen O'Connor, Hamlet's dour observation is more than just words. All his life, he has had visions of tragedies to come. When he experiences the vision of a great bird shot from the sky, he knows something terrible is about to happen. The crash of a private plane on Desolation Mountain in a remote part of the Iron Lake Reservation, which kills a United States senator and most of her family, confirms Stephen's worst fears. Stephen joins his father, Cork O'Connor and a few Ojibwe men from the nearby Iron Lake reservation to sift through the smoldering wreckage when the FBI arrives and quickly assumes control of the situation. What seems like the end of the O'Connors' involvement is, however, only the beginning of a harrowing journey to understand the truth behind the Senator's death. As he initiates his own probe, Cork O'Connor stumbles upon a familiar face in Bo Thorson, a private security consultant whose unnamed clients have hired him to look quietly into the cause of the crash. The men agree to join forces in their investigation, but soon Cork begins to wonder if Thorson's loyalties lie elsewhere. In that far north Minnesota County, which is overrun with agents of the FBI, NTSB, DoD, and even members of a rightwing militia, all of whom have their own agendas, Cork, Stephen, and Bo attempt to navigate a perilous course. Roadblocked by lies from the highest levels of government, uncertain who to trust, and facing growing threats the deeper they dig for answers, the three men finally understand that to get to the truth, they will have to face the great menace, a beast of true evil lurking in the woods-a beast with a murderous intent of unimaginable scale.

  • Fox Creek

    19

    Fox Creek
    Fox Creek

    Cork O'Connor, the retired sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota, is in a race against time to save the people he loves from ruthless mercenaries in this riveting new novel from New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger. The ancient Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux has had a vision of his death. As he walks the Northwoods in solitude, he tries to prepare himself peacefully for the end of his long life. But peace is destined to elude him as hunters enter the woods seeking a woman named Dolores Morriseau, a stranger who had come to Henry for shelter and the gift of his wisdom. Meloux guides this stranger and his great niece, Cork O’Connor’s wife, to safety deep into the Boundary Waters, his home for more than a century. On the last journey he may ever take into this beloved land, Meloux must do his best to outwit the deadly mercenaries who follow. Meanwhile, in Aurora, Cork works feverishly to identify the hunters and the reason for their relentless pursuit, but he has little to go on. In desperation, Cork begins tracking the killers, but his own skills in the wild are severely tested by a late season snowstorm. He knows only too well that with each passing hour time is running out. His fiercest enemy in this deadly game of cat and mouse may be his own deep self-doubt about his ability to save those he loves. Fox Creek is an intensely gripping and richly imagined addition to a masterful series.

  • Sulfur Springs

    16

    Sulfur Springs
    Sulfur Springs

    In William Kent Krueger's latest pulse-pounding thriller, Cork O'Connor's search for a missing man in the Arizona desert puts him at the center of a violent power struggle along the Mexican border, a struggle that might cost Cork everything and everyone he holds most dear. On the Fourth of July, just as fireworks are about to go off in Aurora, Minnesota, Cork O'Connor and his new bride Rainy Bisonette listen to a desperate voicemail left by Rainy's son, Peter. The message is garbled and full of static, but they hear Peter confess to the murder of someone named Rodriguez. When they try to contact him, they discover that his phone has gone dead. The following morning, Cork and Rainy fly to Coronado County in southern Arizona, where Peter has been working as a counselor in a well-known drug rehab center. When they arrive, they learn that Peter was fired six months earlier and hasn't been heard from since. So they head to the little desert town of Sulfur Springs where Peter has been receiving his mail. But no one in Sulfur Springs seems to know him. They do, however, recognize the name Rodriguez. Carlos Rodriguez is the head of a cartel that controls everything illegal crossing the border from Mexico into Coronado County. As they gather scraps of information about Peter, Cork and Rainy are warned that there is a war going on along the border. "Trust no one in Coronado County," is a refrain they hear again and again. And to Cork, Arizona is alien country. The relentless heat and absence of water, tall trees, and cool forests feel nightmarish to him, as does his growing sense that Rainy might know more about what's going on than she's willing to admit. And if he can't trust Rainy, who can he trust? Featuring Krueger's signature talent of "creating strong characters, building drama and conflict, braiding in Indian legend and spirituality, and spinning a good yarn" (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Sulfur Springs is a fresh, exhilarating, and white-knuckle mystery starring one of the greatest heroes of fiction.

  • Lightning Strike

    18

    Lightning Strike
    Lightning Strike

    The New York Times bestselling author of This Tender Land returns with a powerful prequel to his acclaimed Cork O’Connor series—a book about fathers and sons, long-smoldering conflicts in a small Minnesota town, and the events that echo through youth and shape our lives forever. Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota’s Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to twelveyear-old Cork O’Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from a tree in an abandoned logging camp, it is the first in a series of events that will cause him to question everything he took for granted about his hometown, his family, and himself. Cork’s father, Liam O’Connor, is Aurora’s sheriff, and it is his job to confirm that the man’s death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his father’s official investigation, Cork begins to look for answers on his own. Together, father and son face the ultimate test of choosing between what their heads tell them is true and what their hearts know is right. In this masterful story of a young man and a town on the cusp of change, beloved novelist William Kent Krueger shows that some mysteries can be solved even as others surpass our understanding.

Author

William Kent Krueger

William Kent Krueger is the New York Times bestselling author of The River We Remember, This Tender Land, Ordinary Grace (winner of the Edgar Award for best novel), and the original audio novella The Levee, as well as nineteen acclaimed books in the Cork O’Connor mystery series, including Lightning Strike and Fox Creek. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family. Learn more at WilliamKentKrueger.com.

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Reviews for Cork O'Connor Mysteries

Rating: 3.888888947073256 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story and the depth of history made this book wonderful.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    well worth the read. Keep me riveted
    Keep writing ! Onward
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My favorite part is how Cork reacts with everyone, he is a good guy and gets respect.
    My least favorite part is using our Lord’s name inappropriately. Lots of other words,…
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the best book of the series!!! Was also the saddest but life must go on for the O’Connors.