Blood Hollow is the fourth in the now twenty-two volume set of Cork O’Connor private eye mystery series. Here, Krueger handles multiple intersecting plot lines and potential villains with aplomb.
The beautiful, but drunk, daughter of a wealthy townsperson drives away from a New Year’s Eve party on a snowmobile and disappears just before a blizzard storms into Aurora, Minnesota. When the spring melts the snow, her corpse is found. With little investigation, the murderer is pronounced to be her bad-boy Native American ex-boyfriend, Solemn Winter Moon. This murder exposes small-town bigotry toward Native Americans as well as bureaucracy enforced by an inexperienced sheriff. Private investigator Cork O’Connor faces plenty of adversity as he investigates the crime, trying to prove the innocence of Winter Moon, including nearly freezing to death in the aforementioned blizzard.
As always, I enjoyed Krueger’s descriptions of small-town Aurora, the Minnesota landscape and weather, and the encounters between Whites and Native Americans. Especially interesting here is Cork’s realization of his own pre-conceived notions of guilt and innocence.
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Blood Hollow (Atria, February 3, 2004) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my reviews of other William Kent Krueger books here:
Purgatory Ridge (#3 in the Cork O’Connor series)
Boundary Waters (#2)
Iron Lake (#1)
Lightning Strike (#18, but #1 chronologically)
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