Customer Reviews

Copper River: A Novel (Cork O'Connor)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I report that Kent is a fellow member of the Minnesota Crime Wave, as well as the critique group I belong to, and we are friends. Having said that, let me assure you that this is a dynamite book. Another in the fine Cork O'Connor series. Those who have read Mercy Falls will naturally want this book since it completes the arc that begins with the previous book. Nevertheless, Copper River is complete within its own covers.

But there is considerably more here than resolution to the turmoil conjured up in Mercy Falls. O'Connor, wounded by a professional killer, goes to ground in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with distant relatives in an uncomfortable situation. Family relationships are always an important part of Krueger's novels. This book also explores some horrific circumstances that effectively demonstrate that our often common view of bucolic small-town life is sometimes at serious odds with reality.

O'Connor, fearing for his family, has taken refuge with the widow of a man he once arrested. While he heals he is drawn inexorably into the life of his nephew and the boy's interesting teen aged companions. That life finally leads to the uncovering of crimes first revealed in one of the most moving open scenes I have ever read in a novel in this or any genre.

Krueger is a fine writer and he knows how to build suspense while telling a good story. But his real strength is in the characters he develops and their interactions. But don't just take the word of this reviewer. Pick up a copy and read the first page. Just the first page. Not the cover copy, or that on the flaps. Just page one. Then decide.

A continuation of the last book, that for a while felt like the second of three, until a less than satisfactory conclusion ended that notion. Good page turning action, but less well thought out than usual. Is the author getting tired of Cork?

This is Krueger's best written "Cork" Corcoran mystery. His plot has fewer distractions than his previous efforts and the writing is quite taut. I am not sure it is his best book because the sheer vigor of his good first novel is hard to top, even if it tended to ramble a bit. But there is no wasted writing at all in the current novel, and if there are no "red herrings," neither are there any irrelevant side trips.

The pot finds Corcoran on the run from an aging paterfamilias who has put a price on his head for (as he erroneously believes) killing his son. Corcoran winds up hiding at the Upper Michigan home of a relative who has a young son who comes to idolize him. Some murders occur and the child and his semi-girl friend become targets. Depite his serious injury, Corcoran, with the help of his Wonder-woman ex-FBI agent friend, protect the kids and solve the mystery in a satisfactory way.

The weakest part of the book involves the resolution of the "hit" on Corcoran, particularly the confrontation between him and the Godfather-like senior. Obviously, Krueger wants to get Corcoran back to Minnesota in the worst way, and is willing to use some pretty thin plotting to do it. But overall, it is a fine addition to the Corcoran corpus. It will be good to get him back to his home turf.

Sheriff Cork O'Conner is wounded and hiding out with his cousin, Jewell, after an attempt on his life by a professional hit man. Jewell's fourteen year-old son, Ren, has a best friend, Charlie a tomboy whose father is an alcoholic causing her to occasionally stay at a runaway shelter when her father is at his worst. Ren, Charlie and another friend think they see a body in the river one day. After the body turns up and is identified as another girl from the shelter, Ren and Charlie's friend is struck by a car, Charlie's father is murdered and Charlie is hiding out for her life. In spite of Cork's own dangers, he, with the help of Dina, a friend and former FBI agent, are determined to protect Charlie and find out what is going on.

Although this was less a story of Cork and more focused on Ren and Charlie, all the strengths of Krueger's writing were in evidence. The evocative sense of place, strong characters and dialogue, elements of native America mythology and excellent suspense are hallmarks of Krueger. But after the build up of "Mercy Falls" I felt a bit let down by the lack focus on Cork, interaction with his family, and the somewhat anticlimactic ending of that particular story line. Still, this was a very good book and I am already anxious for the next.

Not bad, much better than Mercy Falls to which it is a sequel. Copper River has some closure and gets Cork out of Northern Minnesota.

According to the late Mickey Spillane, "Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book."

There is no better description of William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series than that. Krueger is one of those writers who "the older he gets, the better he writes." Beginning with the first book, "Iron Lake," I've read every one in the series. Krueger was apprehensive about the ending in the 5th book, "Mercy Falls." I think he described it as "risky." In my opinion the risk paid off, because I couldn't wait to read "Copper River," to pick up where "Mercy Falls" ended. As with the previous five books, once I began reading "Copper River," I couldn't put it down until I had finished. I hate coming to the end of Krueger's books. They're that good.

As anyone who has been following this series knows, the is the follow-up to 'Mercy Falls'. What makes it strange is that it's really a totally different story with the last books 'cliffhanger' hanging around until Krueger gets around to it.

Cork has taken off to his 'cousin' in the UP (upper peninsula of Michigan) and sent the family to Evanston, Illinois (to keep them out of harms way). While staying at his cousin's, who happens to be a Vet and treats his gun shot, Cork gets involved with another murder. This one is related to a rape/murder that happened twenty years ago, and the culprits who are still around and back to their old bad ways. This part of the story puts Cork in a subsidiary roll as part of an ensemble, but Krueger does a good job of keeping all the characters up front and there is just a little 'red herring' as to one of the 'bad guys' in the end.

What is disappointing is the way he finished up the cliffhanger. In a three hundred page book, he cleans up 'Mercy River' in twenty pages. Talk about leftovers! Why bother? He could just as easily made it an epilogue in the other book for all the time it took. The only question left hanging is, will Cork quit as Sheriff and return to running Sam's.

Zeb Kantrowitz

If it weren't for the swear words and some gore, I'd think this book was written for teenagers. This is one of those thrillers where hardened cops let kids and housewives join in the manhunt for dangerous killers. Ridiculous. And a lot of the dialog is teen talk. And a lot of things just happen coincidentally -- you know, everything's so well-planned that the author can just wrap the book up in a nice little -- albeit unbelieveable -- package. On the other hand, it was fast and light reading, although the ending is simply ridiculous. I think the book deserves only two stars but I'll give it three because I've liked Krueger's other books and it did keep me amused for the time I read it. But it could have been better.

Still a good yarn, but the continuing character of Cork O'Connor was really a secondary character in this book. He's on the run from hired killers and still suffering from a wound, so he can't get around much. Takes refuge with an estranged cousin and the story really focuses around her family and community.

I couldn't wait to read the sequel of "Mercy Falls". It isn't that I was disappointed in the continuing story of Cork O' Connor, but it is a different kind of Cork that we find in "Copper River". As usual the story runs tight and fast. Kent Krueger is still one of the best storytellers in print. Here we find COrk on "the lam", wounded by gunshots to his leg, being cared by Jewell, a veternarian cousin near Bodine in the UP of Michigan. He stil is in hiding from the contract put on him by Lou Jacoby. But the story deals more with child abuse. It's the story of two young people Ren and Charlie.
My only negative criticism is that everything seems to be resolved in the last two chapters of the story.
Note to Kent. Bring Cork back to Aurora, MN and let's have more of his interactions with his family in your next Cork Mystery.

Those of you who enjoy the Cork O' Connor mysteries should check out C. J. Box's Joe Pickett mysteries. I believe Box and Krueger are on a par with each other when it comes to good story-telling.