A Bolt Out of the Blue: A Guest Post by William Kent Krueger

Legendary sheriff Cork O’Connor might be retired, but that doesn’t mean he won’t fight for justice. After learning of a decades-old case which sent an innocent man to prison, O’Connor seeks to uncover what really happened all those years ago. Read on for an exclusive essay from William Kent Krueger on writing Apostle’s Cove.

I’m often asked where I get the ideas for my work. In reply, I explain my own belief that once you embrace being a storyteller, it’s as if you open a door to yourself and stories come pouring in from all directions. They come places you would expect—your own experience, the news, family history, a unique tale shared by a friend or acquaintance. But sometimes, they just come to you like a bolt out of the blue, with no clear source. That was Apostle’s Cove.

When I completed the manuscript for Spirit Crossing, the Cork O’Connor novel published last year, I was still under contractual obligation to deliver one more book in the series. For two reasons, I decided to put off trying to meet that obligation. First of all, there’d been an idea for a stand-alone novel knocking at my door for a good long while, begging to be written, and I was eager to begin. But even more important was the fact that I simply didn’t have a compelling idea for another Cork story.

So, I launched into writing the stand alone. All was going wonderfully well, and I was almost halfway through the story I imagined telling, when a stunning idea for a Cork O’Connor novel hit me. Where it came from, God only knows, because to this day, I certainly don’t.

For me, Cork has always been a man guided by a profound belief in trying to do the right thing. But I suddenly saw a story set in his early days as sheriff of Tamarack County, when he may have been responsible for a great miscarriage of justice. I saw a story in which Cork may have made a mistake that sent an innocent man to prison for life.

I loved the idea and immediately imagined it in two parts. The first part would deal with the initial investigation of a brutal murder, which would result in the conviction of an Ojibwe man. In the second part, Cork would be made aware that he might have got everything wrong and, determined to find the truth, would reinvestigate the case.

I imagined Cork struggling with guilt over the terrible mistake he might have made, and I loved the idea of exploring that vulnerability. But I also saw it as an opportunity to revisit the past and to offer readers a glimpse of a different time in his life: Cork as a young man, a young husband, a young father.

Normally I think through a Cork O’Connor story as completely as I can before I begin the actual writing, which can take weeks. But this story was different. I felt that I had to get to it quickly. When I launched into the writing, all I had to go on was the basic conceit, and I let the story itself guide me. It was a wonderfully different creative process and may just have changed forever how I approach the creation of my next Cork O’Connor novel.

I have to say, wherever this idea came from, I felt doubly blessed—blessed in being given the story and blessed in the full enjoyment of writing it.