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Available from Books In Motion at: http://www.booksinmotion.com/product_p/-1-58116-396-7.htm Former Sheriff of Tamarack County Cork O'Connor is about to close his fast food stand in Aurora, Minnesota, when ex-country-western singer Arkansas Willie Reyes appears unexpectedly on his doorstep. Arkansas Willie is the father of Shiloh, a popular female country-western singer who mysteriously dropped out of the music scene two months previously. Willie is worried about his daughter who he believes is holed up somewhere in the two-million-acre Quetico-Superior Wilderness area. Letters from Shiloh indicate that she's returned to the land of her Ojibwe forefathers, but Willy has no idea why or if she's alone or with someone. He hires Cork to find her, citing his fear that she may be in trouble. Cork's love for his own two daughters makes him take the case. But before he can leave for the Wilderness area, he's contacted by FBI Special Agent Harris, head of a three-man investigative team that's arrived in Aurora for the same purpose as Arkansas Willie. Harris's reasons for wanting to find Shiloh are not at all like Willie's. As a child, Shiloh witnessed the murder of her mother, a part-Ojibwe country-western singer who grew up in Aurora. Shiloh has always claimed no memory of the event, but Harris believes differently. Shiloh had been seeing a psychologist before her disappearance, and Harris thinks her treatment consisted of memory recall therapy. He believes she's in danger from a casino owner named Benedetti, her mother's ex-lover and the prime suspect in the murder. When Cork learns that Wendall Two-Knives escorted Shiloh into the wilderness and is now missing from his home, he and Willie visit Wendell's nephew, a man who once spent time in jail for second degree murder. The nephew knows nothing, but his ten-year-old son does. Little Lewis Two-Knives used to accompany Wendell on his trips to Shiloh's cabin. Although he's not sure of the names of the various lakes they crossed to get there, Lewis is the only guide Cork can find. Harris blackmails Lewis's father into joining the search party. Along with Cork, Willie, and two of the FBI agents, Lewis and his dad set off in canoes to traverse the Boundary Waters of the Quetico-Superior Wilderness. They soon discover that they're being followed by someone as intent on finding Shiloh as they are. Things then turn ugly when one member of the search party is brutally murdered outside of camp. Krueger's second Cork O'Connor mystery follows the release of his Anthony Award-winning debut, IRON LAKE. BOUNDARY WATERS is a worthy follow-up with alternating chapters highlighting Cork's adventures, Shiloh's struggles, and Cork's wife's activities in Aurora. Cork's marital problems are handled deftly by Krueger whose insight into the female mind is refreshingly realistic. The author also shows a sensitivity for the customs and traditions of Minnesota's Native Americans, explaining them through the words and actions of his Ojibwe characters. The book's plotting is complicated but understandable, and the dialogue between characters flows naturally. Krueger's greatest skill, though, shows in his lyrical descriptions of the Boundary Water area and the wilderness that stretches for miles between and over the American and Canadian borders. With a narrative often bordering on poetry, Krueger exhibits his knowledge of and love for the great northern lands of this country. Listeners will appreciate the strong reading by Jerry Sciarrio who paints pictures with his voice, creating a living character out of the Wilderness described by Krueger. The two men make a good team, one that will hopefully stay together for further adventures.
Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, August 2006
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