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After his excursion into a dark, modern noir, standalone thriller, (The Devil's Bed) Krueger has returned to familiar ground. His exploration of the people and the places he has created in the fictional town of Aurora, Minnesota, continue to fascinate us. Ex-sheriff, bi-racial road-house owner, Corcoran O'Connor has settled into a fairly typical small-town existence. His aggressive, bright, lawyer-wife Jo and he have come to terms with important elements of their personalities and have been able to resolve some of their major differences. Their affection for each other as well as their concern and love for their three children has become a solid familial foundation. Jo's law practice, as well as Cork's lake-side hamburger joint, provide them with a comfortable living. While Cork misses law-enforcement work, he seems to have resolved that issue. When the teenaged daughter of a wealthy resident disappears during a New Year's Eve party, the town mobilizes to try to find her. Readers who have never experienced deep winter in Northern woods may wonder about some of the early pages. They shouldn't. Traveling through desolate, snow-laden forests in the face of a looming storm is not something any sane person wants to do. With spare, pointed, evocative writing, author Krueger jerks us into a dangerous, compelling opening scene. Yet there are puzzling aspects to the experience that leave us wondering. As they should. The essence of the novel lies in these words which are really, a key facet of O'Connor's personality and life view. O'Connor is talking to his wife. "The dead can't speak for themselves," he said. "They've got no way to ask for justice. What's left behind in the details of their deaths is the only hope they have for pointing the way toward truth, and someone ought to pay attention."Š "It's called due diligence." These words are not a new concept, nor are they particularly original, but they encapsulate in a very neat way the essential being that is Corcoran O'Connor and they are the driving force behind much of his thinking and his actions. There are puzzling clues, unknown forces at work in this novel. There are coincidences and parallels that require at times, a high level of trust in the reader. Krueger delivers on that trust. But there is much more to the character of Cork O'Connor than due diligence. Indeed, nearly all of the characters in Krueger's books are multi-dimensional. In addition to the evocative writing and strong pace, we read Krueger's novels to learn how his protagonist deals with questions about his personal and others' motivations, about mankind's social structures. Krueger's characters evolve, they change, they are affected in myriad ways by forces seen and unseen, as are each of us. O'Connor may not be Everyman but he speaks for many in this turbulent time, and he does so inside a strong and cracking good mystery thriller.
Reviewed by Carl Brookins, January 2004
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