book review: "Boundary Waters"...

... by my current favorite, William Kent Krueger. This one was originally published in 1999. Which means the family of my 'friend', Cork O'Connor consists of a wife, Jo, and much younger children than the more recently written tales.  O'Connor is a former Chicago policeman, who left the city and moved back to his (fictional) hometown of Aurora, in Tamarack County, northern Minnesota.

Read/heard as a talking book, the story takes place in Minnesota in an area called the Boundary Waters, nearly a million acres of pristine forest, lakes and rivers situated on the border of the US and Canada. Cork is persuaded to go into this this vast woodland, part of the Ojibwa reservation, in search of a young woman who is living in a remote cabin. Shiloh is trying to get her life together, having gotten off track, lead astray with the glitzy life of a successful singer who has substance abuse problems. Someone wants her dead.

Cork is lead to believe he is going to her rescue, and thinks he is accompanied by her dad and Federal agents who want to protect her. The group travels in three canoes, lead by a child who is the only one who knows where the cabin is, as he went with his uncle to take supplies and bring out mail from the primitive site. Nothing is as it first appears, the group of men is followed and chased, shot at and beaten by hired killers who have been sent to kill Shiloh.

Corks' wife Jo, an attorney, does much to unravel the deceit and mystery of the men who are all searching for the young woman. While getting little information or reassurance from the people she is questioning to try to understand what she can do to help with the search. More than one man appears in the town of Aurora, claiming to be the father of the young woman. The people who claim to be Federal agents are killed by the hirelings, as the group is canoeing through the raw wilderness of the Boundary Waters.

I continue to find these books on Cd's and listen while driving. Have a really hard time turning the story off when I get to my destination. But if I had the books in print, I would be up in the wee  hours, desperately trying to help with resolving the crisis, get the good guys safely home. I've really enjoyed getting to know the O'Connor family, as the author has created some characters that are remarkably human, and  believable. Adding little quirks and details to their lives to give them qualities that make them remarkably lifelike.