Trickster's Point

June 11, 2012
In the prologue of Anthony Award–winner Krueger’s fine 12th Cork O’Connor novel (after 2011’s Northwest Angle), politician Jubal Little, who most likely would’ve won election as Minnesota’s first Native American governor in a few days, takes three hours to die with an arrow in his chest—an arrow that belongs to his old friend, Cork, with whom he’d been bow hunting. As Cork seeks answers to such questions as who wanted to kill Jubal and who wanted to frame him for the murder, the narrative charts Jubal’s rise from high school athlete to NFL star, from U.S. representative to leading candidate for governor of Minnesota. Cork finds many suspects among the enemies Jubal made over the years, in particular those who disagreed with Jubal’s politics. A second puzzling killing muddies the water more. Krueger’s intimate knowledge of Minnesota’s northern reaches and respect for Native American life, ancient and modern, provide an intricate setting for this gem of a mystery. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller Literary Associates.

August 15, 2012
The murder of a rising political star who just happens to be one of his oldest friends lands Minnesota private eye Corcoran O'Connor in the hot seat. Even though he wanted to go for help, Cork agreed to sit with Jubal Little for three hours after their backwoods deer hunt was cut short when his old schoolmate was shot by an arrow that closely resembled the arrows Cork made for himself. He listened to Jubal ramble about his romance with their mutual friend Winona Crane, his foreshortened run for the Senate and the mysterious Rhiannon, whose fate was "the worst sin of all." Now all of Cork's friends and former colleagues in the Tamarack County sheriff's office suspect Cork of shooting Jubal. Even Jubal assumed that Cork had fired the fatal arrow. Determined to clear himself, Cork makes the rounds of alternative suspects--Jubal's politically connected widow, Camilla, and her family, Ojibwe activist Isaiah Broom, logger Buzz Bigby, whose bullying son, Donner, met a bad end after one last run-in with Jubal many years ago--with all the finesse of a bull in a china shop, though he can't catch eternal wild-child Winona, who's taken a powder once again. More revealingly, Krueger interleaves the present-day story with a series of flashbacks that trace the winding steps in Cork's relationship with his old friend, whose charm, warmth, wide range of skills and iron ambition made him easy to like but hard to love. The climactic revelations, if they aren't exactly surprising, are as logical as they are poignant. Krueger's 12th (Northwest Angle, 2011, etc.) is alternately muscular and tender, and maybe a tad synthetic--middling for this fine series.

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March 15, 2012

Cork O'Connor has gone bow-hunting with Jubal Little, Minnesota's first Native American governor-elect, when an arrow out of nowhere slices through Little's heart. Alas, the arrow belongs to O'Connor, and he must find out who framed him for this murder. With a nine-city tour.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2012
In Ojibwe legend, Trickster's Point is a monolith known for causing confusion among hunters. This legend fits Krueger's latest Cork O'Connor mystery, since it revolves around a hunt gone terribly awry and the many false clues and leads it produces, leading to big-time confusion. At novel's opening, former sheriff's office investigator and current private eye O'Connor is sitting next to a dying man on Trickster's Point. Before suffering his grievous wound, the man, Jubal Little, was about to become the first Native American governor-elect of Minnesota. Now Little has an arrow through his heart, and O'Connor can't decide whether to seek help, leaving Little to die, or pull the arrow out. O'Connor becomes the prime suspect after it's discovered that the arrow and its particular pattern are his. O'Connor must clear himself of the crime and investigate the enigma of Little's past. In addition to having a plot as cunningly treacherous as Trickster's Point itself, Krueger's latest mystery has that elegiac tone that's perfectly suited to O'Connor's character and to the harsh landscape where he lives and works.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)