Boundary Waters

William Kent Krueger

Mar 2010 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Former small-town sheriff Cork O’Connor leads a desperate search-and-rescue mission into the unforgiving Minnesota wilderness in this “gritty, bloody adventure” (Publishers Weekly) from critically acclaimed author William Kent Krueger’s award-winning mystery series.

The Quetico-Superior Wilderness: more than two million acres of forest, white-water rapids, and uncharted islands on the Canadian/American border. Somewhere in the heart of this unforgiving territory, a young woman named Shiloh—a country-western singer at the height of her fame—has disappeared.

Her father arrives in Aurora, Minnesota, to hire Cork O’Connor to find his daughter. Cork joins a search party that includes an ex-con, two FBI agents, and a ten-year-old boy. Others are on Shiloh’s trail as well—men hired not just to find her, but to kill her.

As the expedition ventures deeper into the wilderness, strangers descend on Aurora, threatening to spill blood on the town’s snowy streets. Meanwhile, out on the Boundary Waters, winter falls hard. Cork’s team of searchers loses contact with civilization, and like the brutal winds of a Minnesota blizzard, death—violent and sudden—stalks them.

Ratings and reviews

Cork O'Connor, the former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota, is asked to help find a young country and western singer who is missing. He is reluctant to help but when he thinks of his own three children, he agrees. Shiloh is the daughter of William "Arkansas Willie," Raye. Raye is a former country and western singer who now manages his daughter's record company. Shiloh has been sending him weekly letters but they stopped. Willie admits that Shiloh had wanted to find a place to be alone and was feeling depressed. However, now a winter storm is coming and Willie is worried. Others are also looking for Shiloh. Police think that she may be a witness to her mother's murder by an Italian gangster. Apparently, Shiloh had amnesia and blocked out the memory of her mother's murder but now Shiloh's memory is returning. Agents of the FBI become involved and force their way into the hunt for Shiloh. In this, we see one of the author's themes with members of the federal government taking advantage of Native Americans by threats and intimidation. The plot driven novel gives the reader a good view of Cork's resourcefullness as he leads the search party into the Minnesota wilderness. Other members of the party are the federal officers, Shiloh's father, an American Indian and the American Indian's ten year old son, Louis. Louis is a well mannered boy who learned about the wilderness from his grandfather and relates stories of the Native American history as the men search for Shiloh. Another person is also hunting for Shiloh and this person's goal is that Shiloh doesn't return alive. I enjoyed the story and the character portrayal. I moved the rating from 3 1/2 stars to 4 stars due to the character portrayal and the description of the area and Indian history.

About the author

William Kent Krueger is the New York Times bestselling author of The River We Remember, This Tender Land, Ordinary Grace (winner of the Edgar Award for best novel), and the original audio novella The Levee, as well as nineteen acclaimed books in the Cork O’Connor mystery series, including Lightning Strike and Fox Creek. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family. Learn more at WilliamKentKrueger.com.