Windigo Island

Starred review from June 30, 2014
Edgar-winner Krueger highlights the vulnerability of Native American youth in his excellent 14th Cork O’Connor novel (after 2013’s Tamarack County). PI Cork, a former Minnesota sheriff, reluctantly investigates the disappearance of 14-year-old Mariah Arceneaux, who left her home near Bad Bluff, Wis., a year earlier. The battered body of the friend who accompanied her, Carrie Verga, recently washed ashore on Windigo Island in Lake Superior. A plea for help from Mariah’s diabetic mother, Louise, to the sage Henry Meloux ends with Cork’s older daughter, Jenny, rashly vowing to help save Mariah. This move forces Cork’s hand, putting him on the trail of a ruthless man called Windigo. Jenny, Louise, and centenarian Henry play key roles as the mission tests both spiritual and physical powers. Krueger paints a vivid picture of the sordid cycle of poverty, abuse, alcoholism, and runaway (or throwaway) children on the reservation, and reminds us of the evil of men all too willing to exploit the innocent. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller Literary Associates.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
Krueger's latest in the Cork O'Connor series set around Lake Superior and northern Minnesota is a punch-to-the-gut blend of detective story and investigative fiction, centering on the plight of American Indian women and girls who, far too often, are the victims of sexual trafficking and prostitution. Krueger's opening author's note cites various reports on contemporary trafficking and ends with, Our willing blindness to the truth is the greatest enemy to change. The mystery novel that follows illuminates the extraordinary ordinariness of human trafficking by following the interlocked fates of two young Ojibwe teen girls set upon by predators. The investigation starts with the discovery of one of the friends washed up on the rocks of Windigo Island, which, according to legend, is the home of the windigo, a huge, devouring beast. As O'Connor, former sheriff and now private eye and owner of a North Woods bar, investigates for the girl's family, he learns that the victim's close friend has gone missing. O'Connor's investigation is especially difficult, since he has to confront both tight-lipped, fearful relatives and friends, and a phalanx of police and government roadblocks to find his way to Duluth, a major center for sexual trafficking. Krueger has written an investigative novel as blistering and crucial in its indictments of contemporary evil as The Jungle.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2014

Residents of the Bad Bluff reservation blame a mythical beast called the Windigo when the body of a teenage Ojibwe girl washes up on an island in Lake Superior. But private eye Cork O'Connor thinks that rampant sex trafficking is the explanation.

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