Lightning Strike is the eighteenth of twenty Cork O’Connor mysteries, a new-to-me mystery series. I started with #18 because it’s the prequel to the rest of the series. I recently read Krueger’s extraordinary novel, Ordinary Grace, which is a beautifully-written coming-of-age story and enjoyed it so much I decided to embark on reading the O’Connor series. Like Ordinary Grace, Lightning Strike is set in Minnesota in the 1960s. Cork, a pre-adolescent, starts the story as an ordinary child, but as his hometown is beset by multiple tragedies, his innocence is tested by a creeping awareness of adult issues: secrets, lies, adultery, murder, suicide, racial issues (particularly prejudice against Native Americans), and PTSD. He wrestles with those ideas as well as with the realization that his father and the local priest are simply flawed humans like the rest of the world.
Krueger’s writing is exquisite. The characters, like those in my favorite spy novels, Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series, are well-constructed and superbly endowed with humanity. The plot has the requisite twists, turns, and red herrings that lead to an imminently-satisfying denouement.
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Lightning Strike (Atria Books, August 24, 2021) is available through:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my review of Ordinary Grace here.
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