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Winner of the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award and the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, William Kent Krueger is a wholly original talent among mystery writers, managing to fuse inspired, fluid storytelling with complex, finely textured characterizations. Now, in a briskly paced novel that outstrips even its predecessors in its ability to ratchet up the suspense, Krueger takes us back to Aurora, Minnesota, where the charismatic Cork O'Connor encounters his most baffling case to date.
When the corpse of a beautiful high school student is discovered on a hillside four months after her disappearance on New Year's Eve, all evidence points to her boyfriend, local bad boy Solemn Winter Moon. Despite Solemn's self-incriminating decision to go into hiding, Cork O'Connor, Aurora's former sheriff, isn't about to hang the crime on the kid, whom O'Connor is convinced is innocent. In an uphill battle to clear Solemn's name, Cork encounters no shortage of adversity. Some he knows all too well -- small-town bigotry and bureaucracy foremost among them. What Cork isn't prepared for is the emergence of a long-held resentment hailing from his own childhood. And when Solemn reappears, claiming to have seen a vision of Jesus Christ in Blood Hollow, the mystery becomes thornier than Cork could ever have anticipated. And that's when the miracles start happening....
Praised by critics and peers alike for his bold and insightful writing, William Kent Krueger has become a master of mixing brilliant, evocative prose with stunning, nonstop suspense. Readers are sure to be riveted by his latest foray into the darkest corners of a small-town paradise and the detective who is determined to bring it all to light.
Chapter 1
January, as usual, was meat locker cold, and the girl had already been missing for nearly two days. Corcoran O'Connor couldn't ignore the first circumstance. The second he tried not to think about.
He stood in snow up to his ass, more than two feet of drifted powder blinding white in the afternoon sun. He lifted his tinted goggles and glanced at the sky, a blue ceiling held up by green walls of pine. He stood on a ridge that overlooked a small oval of ice called Needle Lake, five miles from the nearest maintained road. Aside from the track his snowmobile had pressed into the powder, there was no sign of human life. A rugged vista lay before him — an uplifted ridge, a jagged shoreline, a bare granite pinnacle that jutted from the ice and gave the lake its name — but the recent snowfall had softened the look of the land. In his time, Cork had seen nearly fifty winters come and go. Sometimes the snow fell softly, sometimes it came in a rage. Always it changed the face of whatever it touched. Cork couldn't help thinking that in this respect, snow was a little like death. Except that death, when it changed a thing, changed it forever.
He took off his mittens, deerskin lined with fleece. He turned back to the Polaris snowmobile that Search and Rescue had provided for him, and he pulled a radio transmitter from the compartment behind the seat. When he spoke through the mouth hole of his ski mask, his words ghosted against the radio in a cloud of white vapor.
"Unit Three to base. Over."
"This is base. Go ahead, Cork."
"I'm at Needle Lake. No sign of her. I'm going to head up to Hat Lake. That'll finish this section."
"I copy that. Have you seen Bledsoe?"
"That's a negative."
"He completed the North Arm trail and was going to swing over to give you a hand. Also, be advised that the National Weather Service has issued a severe weather warning. A blizzard's coming our way. Sheriff's thinking of pulling everybody in."
Cork O'Connor had lived in the Northwoods of Minnesota most of his life. Although at the moment there was only a dark cloud bank building in the western sky, he knew that in no time at all the weather could turn.
"Ten-four, Patsy. I'll stay in touch. Unit Three out."
He'd been out since first light, and despite the deerskin mittens, the Sorel boots and thick socks, the quilted snowmobile suit, the down parka, and the ski mask, he was cold to the bone. He put the radio back, lifted a Thermos from the compartment under the seat of the Polaris, and poured a cup of coffee. It was only lukewarm, but it felt great going down his throat. As he sipped, he heard the sound of another machine cutting through the pines to his right. In a minute, a snowmobile broke through a gap in the trees, and shot onto the trail where Cork's own machine sat idle. Oliver Bledsoe buzzed up beside Cork and killed the engine. He dismounted and pulled off his ski mask.
"Heard you on the radio with Patsy," Bledsoe said. "Knew I'd catch you here." He cast a longing look at Cork's coffee. "Got any left?"
"Couple swallows," Cork said. He poured the last of the coffee into the cup and offered it to Bledsoe. "All yours."
"Thanks."
Bledsoe was true-blood Iron Lake Ojibwe. He was large, muscular, a hair past fifty, with a wide, honest face and warm almond eyes. Although he was now an attorney and headed the legal affairs office for the tribal council, in his early years he'd worked as a logger and he knew this area well. Cork was glad to have him there.
Bledsoe stripped off his gloves and wrapped his hands around the warm cup. He closed his eyes to savor the coffee as it coursed down his throat. "Anything?" he asked.
"Nothing," Cork said.
"Lot of ground to cover." Bledsoe handed the cup back and glanced north where the wilderness stretched all the way to Canada. "It's a shame, nice girl like her, something like this." He dug beneath his parka and brought out a pack of Chesterfields and Zippo lighter. He offered a cigarette to Cork, who declined. He lit up, took a deep breath, and exhaled a great white cloud of smoke and wet breath. He put his gloves back on and let the cigarette dangle from the corner of his mouth. Nodding toward the sky in the west, he said, "You hear what's coming in? If that girl didn't have bad luck, she'd have no luck at all."
Cork heard the squawk of his radio and picked it up.
"Base to all units. It's official. We've got us a blizzard on the doorstep. A real ass kicker, looks like. Come on in. Sheriff says he doesn't want anyone else lost out there."
Cork listened as one by one the other units acknowledged.
"Unit Three. Unit Four. Did you copy? Over."
"This is Unit Three. Bledsoe's with me. We copy, Patsy. But listen. I still haven't checked Hat Lake. I'd like to have a quick look before I head back."
"Negative, Cork. Sheriff says turn around now. He's pulling in the dogs and air search, too. Weather service says it's not a storm to mess with."
"Is Wally there?"
"He won't tell you anything different."
"Put him on."
Cork waited.
"Schanno, here. This better be good."
Cork could see him, Sheriff Wally Schanno. Grim, harried. With a missing girl, a whale of a blizzard, and a recalcitrant ex-sheriff on his hands.
"I'm just shy of Hat Lake, Wally. I'm going to check it out before I turn back."
"The hell you are. Have you taken a good look behind you?"
Glancing back to the west, toward the cloud bank that was now looming high above the tree line, Cork knew time was short.
"It would be a shame to come this far and not make it that last mile."
"Bring yourself in. That's an order."
"What are you going to do if I don't? Fire me? I'm a volunteer."
"You want to stay on Search and Rescue, you'll come back now. You read me, Unit Three?"
"Loud and clear, Sheriff."
"Good. I expect to see you shortly. Base out."
Schanno sounded weary deep down in his soul. Cork knew that the sheriff would turn away from the radio to face the family of the missing girl, having just reduced significantly the chances of finding her alive. For Cork, being out there in the cold and the snow with a blizzard at his back was infinitely preferable to what Sheriff Wally Schanno had to deal with. Once again, he was exceedingly glad that the badge he himself had once worn was now pinned to the chest of another man.
"Guess that about does it," Oliver Bledsoe said.
"I'm going to check Hat Lake."
"You heard the sheriff."
"I've got to know, Ollie."
Bledsoe nodded. "You want a hand?"
"No. You go on back. I won't be more than half an hour behind you."
"Schanno'll skin you alive."
"I'll take my chances with Wally."
Cork climbed onto the seat, kicked the engine over, and shot east in a roar of sparkling powder.
He hated snowmobiles. Hated the noise, a desecration of the silence of the deep woods that was to him a beauty so profound it felt sacred. Hated the kind of people snowmobiling brought, people who looked at the woods as they would an amusement park, just another diversion in the never-ending battle against boredom. Hated the ease with which the machines allowed access to a wilderness that could swallow the ignorant and unwary without a trace. The only value he could see in a snowmobile was that it allowed him, in a situation like this, to cover a large area quickly.
By the time he reached Hat Lake, the dark wall of cloud behind him stretched north and south from horizon to horizon, completely blotting out the late afternoon sun. The sight gave Cork chills that had nothing to do with the temperature. He found no sign of a snowmobile on the trail that circled the lake. Exactly what he'd suspected, but he wanted to be certain. The wind rose at his back. He watched ghosts of snow swirl up and pirouette across the lake ice. Except for the dancing snow and the trees as they bent to the rising wind, nothing moved. Not one flicker of life across the whole, frigid face of that land.
Copyright © 2004 by William Kent Krueger
Anonymous
Posted December 20, 2011
A great read
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 6, 2011
I read the first of the Cork O'Connor series and was hooked! Within 6 weeks, I read all 12 - and can't wait for the next to come out. I recommend you read them in order if you read the whole series. However, each book can stand alone and is still excellent on its own. I feel like I know (and love) this family. I have read a lot of series books - this series is my favorite!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.MonkeyDawg
Posted December 5, 2011
Like some others, I stumbled across this series and have now become a BIG fan - I have purchased and read installments 1 - 4 in a row.
That said, "Blood Hollow" was my least favorite so far. It is still VERY good, interesting, a real page-turner, but it felt kind of "all over the place". This will not spoil the ending, but I thought Krueger was a little hard on Cork in the end.
I am still giving 4 stars, and would recommend this and the first three in the series without hesitation. Purchasing #5 right now...
pengesser
Posted December 4, 2011
I discovered this series by accident and am quite glad I did. When I start a book I can't put it down and this is no exception.Just when you think you have it all figured out, Bam!, not what you thought at all. Great read.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.scdoane
Posted December 1, 2011
Well conceived and written.Kreuger's characters feel alive and authentic. Regional and ethnic nuances that feel right.Well developed characters and plot lines that kept me turning pages. William Kent Krueger shares shelf space with James Lee Burkes Dave Robichaux series. Distinguished company.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.binkca
Posted November 19, 2011
great read for COC books
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Posted July 27, 2011
Better than ya'd think
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.JessLucy
Posted November 23, 2010
I just love this series and I especially like that the novels take place in my homestate! Family drama, suspense, mystery and murder make for a thrilling who-done-it.
If you like this series, you may also enjoy the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, the Rizzoli/Isles series by Tess Gerritsen and the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell.
Anonymous
Posted May 15, 2010
Blood Hollow is the 4th in a great thriller series! Cork O'Connor is a true hero, whether he is the sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota or just a private citizen running a hamburger grill. In this installment, we learn even more about the bigotry that exists against Native Americans while at the same time reveling in the beauty that surrounds the characters in their rural setting. This book has a little of everything and something for everyone. A touch of religious mysticism is mixed in with the battle to find the murderer of a beautiful teenager. We learn even more about the incredible O'Connor family and the ties that bind. I couldn't put this thriller down and believe you won't be able to either.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.RPITA
Posted March 22, 2010
Just finished reading this book in the Cork O'Connor series and it was as good, if not better, then the other books in this series. I've read all but 2 of his books which I have waiting. I look forward to seeing how Cork solves each mystery. Writing isn't fancy or stilted. Easy to get caught up in the action and how the characters come to life with his discriptions. You feel as if you are personal friends with Cork and all the folks in his life. Enjoy this terrific writer as I have during this long & cold winter! RPITA, Brick, N.J.
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Posted April 20, 2005
Wow!! I really loved this book! It kept me attached to it; I didn¿t want to put it down! I liked it a lot because it kept my attention, and it had a lot of twist. It was a good murder book, so for anyone who loves a good murder book, read this!! It wasn¿t a long, boring book either, even though there was a lot a pages, that didn¿t seem to faze me, because I just kept reading, chapter to chapter. So I suggested this book to anyone, a lot! I wouldn't suggest any other book! This is my favorite book of all times!
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Posted January 6, 2004
After his excursion into a dark, modern noir, stand alone 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 teen-aged 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.¿¿ ¿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.
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Posted January 30, 2004
In Aurora, Minnesota, seventeen years old Charlotte Kane vanishes after being seen at a New Year¿s Eve Party. A search led by Sheriff Wally Shanno of the Northwoods in frozen January turns up nothing. Four thawing months later, the daughter of wealthy recluse Dr. Fletcher Kane is found dead. The locals have no confidence in Shanno and his staff solving the hideous homicide so many encourage former sheriff turned hamburger establishment owner Cork O'Connor to investigate the crime....................................... While Shanno leans towards Ojibwa Solemn Winter Moon, whom the victim romantically toyed with, Cork sees several possible other suspects with stronger motives and opportunities. He beings questioning Charlotte¿s father and Catholic Father Mal Thorne as the former law enforcement official tries to do what he perceives is the right thing, justice for the dead that no longer can obtain such on their own........................................ BLOOD HOLLOW is a strong private investigative tale with obvious police procedural elements involved due to the official inquiry and the hero¿s background. The story line brings home the unbearably cold and desolate landscape (keep the heat on) as few novels can so that the background makes the investigation seem even bleaker yet also shows the strength of character of some of the cast especially Cork. Though he makes progress in his family relationships, he sees a bit too ideally perfect unofficially wearing his old sheriff¿s hat, but fans will appreciate a moral outstanding citizen seeking resolution for someone who is beyond caring what happens.......................... Harriet Klausner
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Posted December 22, 2011
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Overview
A brilliant new installment in the prize-winning Cork O'Connor series -- from the acclaimed author of The Devil's Bed and Purgatory Ridge -- immerses readers in an eerie mystery surrounding a racially charged murder in small-town Minnesota.
Winner of the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award and the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, William Kent Krueger is a wholly original talent among mystery writers, managing to fuse inspired, fluid storytelling with complex, finely textured characterizations. Now, in a briskly paced novel that outstrips even its predecessors in its ability to ratchet up ...