Review of "Thunder Bay: A Cork O'Connor Mystery" by William Kent Krueger

 

\ 

 

In this 7th book in the Cork O'Connor series, the former sheriff travels to Canada to fulfill a promise to his friend Henry Meloux, whose story forms the core of this novel. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.



*****

Corcoran (Cork) O'Connor, whose ancestry is Irish and Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) Indian, was the sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota for nearly a decade. Cork now runs a hamburger shack, and recently got his private investigator license, to keep busy and generate extra income for his college-bound children.



Cork lost his parents young, but nonagenarian Henry Meloux, an Ojibwe Medicine Man (healer and spiritualist), has been a friend/father figure to Cork for decades. So when Henry is hospitalized, and possibly dying, Cork can't deny the old man's request.



Henry tells Cork he has 'a sadness, too heavy for his heart', and reveals he fathered a son 73 years ago - a child he's only seen in visions. Henry wants to meet his offspring , and asks Cork to find the man and bring him to Minnesota. Henry gives Cork all the information he has: the boy's mother was named Maria Luna; she came from Canada; and her photo is in a pocketwatch in Henry's cabin.



Cork does some internet research and learns that Maria Luna is deceased, but her septuagenarian son, Henry Wellington, lives in Thunder Bay, Canada. Henry Wellington is the scion of a VERY WEALTHY gold-mining family, but he's an eccentric recluse (along the lines of Howard Hughes) who's hidden himself away from society.



Cork travels to Thunder Bay and manages to meet Henry Wellington, who refuses to believe his father is an 'Indian buck', and has no interest in meeting Meloux. Cork's visit seems to alarm someone, however, because an assassin subsequently tries to shoot Meloux - who's out of the hospital and back in his cabin.



Meloux now feels compelled to go to Canada to 'heal' his reclusive son, and he wants Cork to take him to Thunder Bay. Before they go, Meloux tells Cork the story of his early years, which takes up a large portion of the novel.

In a nutshell, adolescent Henry Meloux was ripped away from his family in Aurora and sent to a boarding school that functioned to inculcate 'white culture' into Indian children.



Henry ran away from the school and returned to Aurora, where he lived with his Uncle Woodrow, who taught Henry to hunt, fish, track, and live off the land.



At that time, white adventurers would hire Indian guides to take them into the wilderness. At one point young Henry was hired by two gold hunters named Luna and Wellington, who wanted to explore southern Canada. Luna brought his beautiful daughter Maria and nature took its course. Henry and Maria's romance - added to the hunters' ambition and greed - engendered tragedy, and Henry never saw Maria again. Still, Henry's visions informed him about his son. (Henry's entire tale is compelling, so you should read the book.)







Even though Henry Meloux is now in his late nineties, he's determined to go to Thunder Bay to help his son. So Meloux, Cork, and Cork's friend Wally Schanno (a former sheriff) head for Canada to make the meeting happen. This results in danger, action, and adventure......all hallmarks of Cork O'Connor books.



In a side plot, Cork is involved in a personal family drama. Cork and his wife Jo are concerned about their daughter Jenny, a recent high school graduate who's been dating a boy named Sean for years. Jenny and Sean, both aspiring writers, must make some decisions about their future, and Cork and Jo fear Jenny will make a wrong choice.



For me, this is an especially good Cork O'Connor book. Highly recommended to fans of the series and readers who like action/suspense stories.

Rating: 4 stars