When the local lumber company wants to harvest trees from the protected two-hundred-acre expanse of ancient great white pines near the town of Aurora, Minnesota, an environmental extremist, the Eco-Warrior, responds by setting explosives to bring down the mill and sets in motion an intense local conflict in the third of William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor Mystery series, Purgatory Ridge. The novel is again set in Minnesota but during a severe drought that’s brought about wild fires that pollute the fresh air of the little town of Aurora.
Cork is back living with his family, though he and his wife and still dealing with emotional baggage from events that occurred during their separation. When he decides to help the local sheriff investigate the arson at the mill, his actions put him at odds with his wife and the Anishinaabe. Tension increases when Cork’s family is threatened.
This mystery has a lower body count that prior Cork O’Connor mysteries, but as there are many potential villains that Krueger juggles superbly. This whodunnit is a tour de force.
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Purgatory Ridge (Atria, March 9, 2010) 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:
Boundary Waters (#2 in the Cork O’Connor series)
Iron Lake (#1 in the Cork O’Connor series)
Lightning Strike (#18 in the Cork O’Connor series)
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