Back in the saddle as sheriff of Tamarack County, Cork O'Connor is lured to the nearby Ojibwe reservation on what appears to be a routine call -- only to become the target of sniper fire. Soon after, he's called to investigate a mutilated body found perched above the raging waters of Mercy Falls. The victim is Eddie Jacoby, a Chicago businessman negotiating an unpopular contract between his management firm and the local Indian casino. Sparks fly when the wealthy Jacoby family hires a beautiful private investigator to consult on the case. But once Cork discovers an old and passionate tie between one of the Jacoby sons and his own wife, Jo, he begins to suspect that dark, personal motives lurk behind recent events. Murder, greed, sex, and jealousy hide around every corner in this maze of danger. But somewhere beneath the turbulent Mercy Falls lies the truth -- and Cork is determined to find it....

Since the violent deaths of his wife, father, and best friend all occurred in previous Novembers, Cork O’Connor has always considered it to be the cruelest of months. Yet, his daughter has chosen this dismal time of year in which to marry, and Cork is understandably uneasy. His concern comes to a head when a man camping in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness goes missing. As the official search ends with no recovery in sight, Cork is asked by the man’s family to stay on the case. Although the wedding is fast approaching and the weather looks threatening, he accepts and returns to that vast wilderness on his own. As the sky darkens and the days pass, Cork’s family anxiously awaits his return. Finally certain that something has gone terribly wrong, they fly by floatplane to the lake where the missing man was last seen. Locating Cork’s campsite, they find no sign of their father. They do find blood, however. A lot of it. With an early winter storm on the horizon, it’s a race against time as Cork’s family struggles to uncover the mystery behind these disappearances. Little do they know, not only is Cork’s life on the line, but so are the lives of hundreds of others.

The latest in the New York Times bestselling Cork O’Connor mystery series—the action never stops when the private detective ends up in the crosshairs of a political assassin.** The dying don’t easily become the dead. * The next novel in William Kent Krueger’s New York Times bestselling series finds Cork O’Connor sitting in the shadow of a towering monolith known as Trickster’s Point, deep in the Minnesota wilderness. With him is Jubal Little, who is favored to become the first Native American elected governor of Minnesota, and who is slowly dying with an arrow through his heart. Although the men have been bowhunting, a long-standing tradition among these two friends, this is no hunting accident. The arrow turns out to be one of Cork’s, and he becomes the primary suspect in the murder. He understands full well that he’s been set up. As he works to clear his name and track the real killer, he remembers his long, complex relationship with the tough kid who would grow up to become a professional football player, a populist politician, and the lover of the first woman to whom Cork ever gave his heart. Jubal was known by many for his passion, his loyalty, and his ambition. Only Cork knows that he was capable of murder. Full of nail-biting suspense, plus a fascinating look into Cork’s teenage years in Aurora, a town blessed with natural beauty yet plagued by small-town feuds and heated racial tension, Trickster’s Point is a thrilling exploration of the motives, both good and ill, that lead men and women into the difficult, sometimes deadly, political arena.

As the author of over fifteen spellbinding novels in the Cork O’Connor mystery series, William Kent Krueger has introduced countless readers to a harsh but magnificent Minnesota landscape and a cast of remarkable characters who call it home. This is the world of Cork O’Connor. Now in this helpful reader’s companion, readers can gain new insight into how the series has evolved book after book, how Cork O’Connor came to exist as a character, and how Minnesota’s great Northwoods proved to be as important to the books as any human character Krueger created. You’ll find a brief description of each book in the series, a concordance of the characters introduced in each book, and a tantalizing excerpt. Whether you are just discovering William Kent Krueger’s masterful storytelling skills or have been a fan for years, The World of Cork O’Connor provides an overview of an extraordinary body of work that only gets richer over time, and a glimpse into the mind of a gifted writer.

From the creator of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Cork O'Connor mystery series comes a haunting, atmospheric, conspiracy thriller. When President Clay Dixon's father-in-law—a former vice president—is injured in a farming accident, First Lady Kate Dixon returns to Minnesota to be at his side. Assigned to protect her, Secret Service agent Bo Thorsen soon falls under Kate's spell. He also suspects the accident is part of a trap set for Kate by David Moses, an escaped mental patient who once loved her. What Bo and Moses don't realize is that they're caught in a web of deadly intrigue spun by a seemingly insignificant bureaucratic department within the federal government. Racing to find answers before an assassin's bullet can kill Kate, Bo soon learns that when you lie down with the devil, there's hell to pay.

Violence and murder blow into Minnesota’s sleepy Tamarack County as ex-sheriff Cork O’Connor returns in the latest installment of William Kent Krueger’s New York Times bestselling series.As a blizzard swells just days before Christmas, the car belonging to the wife of a retired local judge is discovered abandoned on a rural road in Tamarack County. After days of fruitless effort, the search-and-rescue team has little hope that she’ll be found alive, if at all. Cork O’Connor, former sheriff and now private investigator, is part of that team. Early on, Cork notices small things about the woman’s disappearance that disturb him. But when the beloved pet dog of a friend is brutally killed and beheaded, he begins to see a startling pattern in these and other recent dark occurrences in the area. After his own son comes close to peril, Cork understands that someone is spinning a deadly web in Tamarack County. At the center is a murder more than twenty years old, for which an innocent man may have been convicted. Cork remembers the case only too well. He was the deputy in charge of the investigation that sent the man to prison. With the darkest days of the year at hand, the storms of winter continue to isolate Tamarack County. Somewhere behind the blind of all that darkness and drifting snow, a vengeful force is at work. And Cork has only hours to stop it before his family and his friends pay the ultimate price for the sins of others. With complex plot twists, rich characters, and a vivid setting, Tamarack County is a relentlessly fast-paced novel that will chill, thrill, and shock you.

When the body of a teenage Ojibwe girl washes up on the shore of an island in Lake Superior, the residents of the nearby Bad Bluff reservation whisper that it was the work of a deadly mythical beast, the Windigo, or a vengeful spirit called Michi Peshu. Such stories have been told by the Ojibwe people for generations, but they don’t explain how the girl and her friend, Mariah Arceneaux, disappeared a year ago. At the request of the Arceneaux family, private investigator Cork O’Connor takes on the case. But on the Bad Bluff reservation, nobody’s talking. Still, Cork puts enough information together to find a possible trail. He learns that the old port city of Duluth is a modern-day center for sex trafficking of vulnerable women, many of whom are young Native Americans. As the investigation deepens, so does the danger. Yet Cork holds tight to his higher purpose—his vow to find Mariah, an innocent fifteen-year-old girl whose family is desperate to get her back. With only the barest hope of saving her from men whose darkness rivals that of the legendary Windigo, Cork prepares for an epic battle that will determine whether it will be fear, or love, that truly conquers all.

Henry Meloux, Cork's friend and spiritual advisor, asks the Minnesota sheriff turned private investigator to find Henry's long-lost son. Cork tracks the man to the Canadian town of Thunder Bay, Ontario, where it turns out he's a prominent (if reclusive) industrialist. When someone tries to kill Henry, and the evidence points to his son, Cork digs deep into his old friend's personal history, where he uncovers truths that might be best left buried.

New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger delivers yet another “punch-to-the-gut blend of detective story and investigative fiction” (Booklist, starred review) as Cork O’Connor and his son Stephen work together to uncover the truth behind the tragic plane crash of a senator on Desolation Mountain and the mysterious disappearances of several first responders. This is a heart-pounding and devastating mystery the scope and consequences of which go far beyond what father or son could ever have imagined. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. To Stephen O’Connor, Hamlet’s dour observation is more than just words. All his life, he has had visions of tragedies to come. When he experiences the vision of a great bird shot from the sky, he knows something terrible is about to happen. The crash of a private plane on Desolation Mountain in a remote part of the Iron Lake Reservation, which kills a United States senator and most of her family, confirms Stephen’s worst fears. Stephen joins his father, Cork O’Connor and a few Ojibwe men from the nearby Iron Lake reservation to sift through the smoldering wreckage when the FBI arrives and quickly assumes control of the situation. What seems like the end of the O’Connors’ involvement is, however, only the beginning of a harrowing journey to understand the truth behind the Senator’s death. As he initiates his own probe, Cork O’Connor stumbles upon a familiar face in Bo Thorson, a private security consultant whose unnamed clients have hired him to look quietly into the cause of the crash. The men agree to join forces in their investigation, but soon Cork begins to wonder if Thorson’s loyalties lie elsewhere. In that far north Minnesota County, which is overrun with agents of the FBI, NTSB, DoD, and even members of a rightwing militia, all of whom have their own agendas, Cork, Stephen, and Bo attempt to navigate a perilous course. Roadblocked by lies from the highest levels of government, uncertain who to trust, and facing growing threats the deeper they dig for answers, the three men finally understand that to get to the truth, they will have to face the great menace, a beast of true evil lurking in the woods—a beast with a murderous intent of unimaginable scale.

On the Fourth of July, just as fireworks are about to go off in Aurora, Minnesota, Cork O’Connor and his new bride Rainy Bisonette listen to a desperate voicemail left by Rainy's son, Peter. The message is garbled and full of static, but they hear Peter confess to the murder of someone named Rodriguez. When they try to contact him, they discover that his phone has gone dead. The following morning, Cork and Rainy fly to Coronado County in southern Arizona, where Peter has been working as a counselor in a well-known drug rehab center. When they arrive, they learn that Peter was fired six months earlier and hasn’t been heard from since. So they head to the little desert town of Sulfur Springs where Peter has been receiving his mail. But no one in Sulfur Springs seems to know him. They do, however, recognize the name Rodriguez. Carlos Rodriguez is the head of a cartel that controls everything illegal crossing the border from Mexico into Coronado County. As they gather scraps of information about Peter, Cork and Rainy are warned that there is a war going on along the border. “Trust no one in Coronado County,” is a refrain they hear again and again. And to Cork, Arizona is alien country. The relentless heat and absence of water, tall trees, and cool forests feel nightmarish to him, as does his growing sense that Rainy might know more about what's going on than she's willing to admit. And if he can't trust Rainy, who can he trust?

With his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, detective Cork O’Connor must solve the murder of a young girl in William Kent Krueger’s latest unforgettable New York Times bestseller. During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm. Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover the body of a teenage girl. She wasn’t killed by the storm, however; she’d been bound and tortured before she died. Nearby, underneath a tangle of branches, they also find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive. Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle, where it’s impossible to tell who among the residents is in league with the devil, but Cork understands that to save his family he must solve the puzzle of this mysterious child whom death follows like a shadow.Amazon.com ReviewWith his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, detective Cork O’Connor must solve the murder of a young girl in the latest installment of William Kent Krueger’s unforgettable New York Times bestselling series. During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm. Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper’s cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl. She wasn’t killed by the storm, however; she’d been bound and tortured before she died. Whimpering sounds coming from outside the cabin lead them to a tangle of branches toppled by the vicious winds. Underneath the debris, they find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive. Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle, where it’s impossible to tell who among the residents is in league with the devil. Cork understands that to save his family he must solve the puzzle of this mysterious child whom death follows like a shadow. “Part adventure, part mystery, and all knockout thriller” (Booklist ), Northwest Angle is a dynamic addition to William Kent Krueger’s critically acclaimed, award-winning series. Amazon Exclusive: Laura Lippman Interviews William Kent Krueger Laura Lippman is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of 17 novels, ten of which are part of her acclaimed Tess Monaghan detective series. She is a former journalist and spent twelve years reporting for The Baltimore Sun. Her most recent novels include I'd Know You Anywhere, now available in paperback, and The Most Dangerous Thing, just published in hardcover. Laura Lippman: Elmore Leonard's rules for writing include one that I've never agreed with: Never start a novel with the weather. Yet you use the derecho quite brilliantly in your opening and say you "always knew" that you would write about such a storm in one of your novels. Why now? How did the derecho and the right story find each other? William Kent Krueger: The seed of an idea often comes to me long before the story itself. In 1999, a horrific storm destroyed a huge part of Minnesota's beautiful and beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. When I saw the destruction first-hand, I was stunned and saddened, and I knew that someday I would write about that kind of tragedy. In thinking about Northwest Angle, a book I envisioned as thrilleresque in many ways, I wanted the story to open with the force of a bomb exploding, something that would shatter the O'Connor family and fling them apart. The derecho, an idea planted more than a decade earlier, became the way. LL: You write so well about nature. I can't help wondering at the special challenges that it poses. And you seem particularly interested in humans' conflicting needs for community and isolation, family and privacy. How did you combine these themes in Northwest Angle? WK: Oh my, you do ask complex questions. For me, the most intriguing part of any story is the battle between the need we have as human beings for relationship and the forces that inevitably work to separate us. At the heart of Northwest Angle, is the struggle of the O'Connors to come together and heal after a great tragedy in their lives. But that very personal story is couched within the context of a brutal, ideological clash of communities. It seems to me stories of suspense work best when they create conflict at both an intimate level and on a larger scale. It’s also more fun to write that kind of story, at least for me. Your own novels, particularly your stand-alones, seem to me to be textbook examples of the dramatic tension that comes when the secrets of our private, intimate lives are cracked open for public scrutiny. LL: It's easy to see how Cork has changed over the course of eleven books. But how have you changed as a writer? And how have the circumstances of your life changed your writing? WK: Mostly I've grown older and, I would like to believe, wiser. Like Cork, I've become a grandfather, and that's mellowed me, I'm sure. Although my stories are still about the violence that human beings do to one another, I'm less interested in the violence itself. These days, I tend to deal more with the questions that surround an act of violence rather than the act per se. And generally speaking, the body count in each book has gone down. LL: Northwest Angle works pretty seamlessly on the page, but my intuition tells me that means it wasn't an easy book to write. What were the unique challenges, if any, in writing this particular book? Did you ever feel you were as lost as Cork and Jenny? (Please say yes, or I might have to hate you a little.)WK: At the risk of drawing your ire, the part of the story that deals with Cork and Jenny's struggle to escape the dark forces pitted against them came easily. That was all mostly movement and plot mechanics. The conflict between father and daughter that gives the story much of its punch, now that was the tricky element. And if you hate me just a little for this answer, I'll buy you a glass of wine when I see you next, just to mellow you out. LL: I know a lot of people don't realize that genre writers are often deep into the next project when a new book is published. What's next for you? WK: I'm at work on the next book in the series, a novel tentatively titled Trickster's Point. The down and dirty is that the first Native American governor of Minnesota is murdered while bow hunting with Cork O'Connor, and the arrow that kills him belongs to Cork. So you know, of course, who gets the blame. You might think of it as Cork O'Connor meets All the King's Men. I’m having a ball writing this one. LL: OK, I have a famously awful memory, but my memory is that you won the Anthony for best first novel in 1999 and promptly declared something like "I'm so excited I could throw up." Am I even close? Should I not tell that story? WK: If I'd actually said I might throw up, this would not be a story I'd like repeated. What I really said in accepting the award was this: "Would it be too embarrassing if I broke down and cried?" Got a good laugh, though I was half serious. Amazon Exclusive: Letter from William Kent Krueger A couple of years ago, when Atria informed me that they were going to begin publishing my work in trade paperback with a whole new look to the series, I decided it was time to do something I'd never done before: I reread all my Cork O'Connor novels. I anticipated that in the early work I would see lots of elements that, given a chance, I'd gladly change. To my utter amazement, I fell in love with the stories all over again. What I discovered was a writer whose work I deeply enjoyed reading. And, honestly, I didn't think twice about changes I might like to make. Maybe what I appreciated most was seeing for myself how, though built of similar elements, each book was so different from the others. What I've hoped most to accomplish over the course of the series is to keep readers from feeling as if they're treading ground that’s become drably familiar. I believe absolutely that so long as I continue to be surprised and delighted by the stories that come to me, readers will be, too. Profile of Cork O'Connor The great North Woods of Minnesota is a vast area of harsh weather, deep wilderness, and bitter conflict. This rugged and isolated landscape is home to Cork O'Connor. The former sheriff of Tamarack County, Cork is a man of tremendous resource and mixed heritage. Part Irish-American and part Ojibwe, he straddles two cultures that, more often than not, are at extreme—sometimes violent—odds. He’s a family man who’d rather toss a football with his son than tote a gun; but he understands only too well that he lives in a place where winter isn't the only thing that can kill the unwary, where wolves share the woods with predators who walk on two legs, and where, in order to protect those he loves, even a good man must be willing to do the unthinkable.For more on the Cork O'Connor series, read Margaret Coel's guest review of *Vermilion Drift*. Review“This book is difficult to put down." —Sacramento Book Review/San Francisco Book Review

When the daughter of a powerful businessman dies as a result of her meth addiction, her father, strong-willed and brutal Buck Reinhardt, vows revenge. His target is the Red Boyz, a gang of Ojibwe youths accused of supplying the girl's fatal drug dose. When the head of the Red Boyz and his wife are murdered in a way that suggests execution, the Ojibwe gang mobilizes, and the citizens of Tamarack County brace themselves for war, white against red. Both sides look to Cork O'Connor, a man of mixed heritage, to uncover the truth behind the murders. A former sheriff, Cork has lived, fought, and nearly died to keep the small-town streets and his family safe from harm. He knows that violence is never a virtue, but he believes that it's sometimes a necessary response to the evil that men do. Racing to find answers before the bloodshed spreads, Cork himself becomes involved in the darkest of deeds. As the unspeakable unfolds in the remote and beautiful place he calls home, Cork is forced to confront the horrific truth: Violence is a beast that cannot be contained.

Two-time Anthony Award-winning author William Kent Krueger has "moved to the head of the crime fiction class" ("Chicago Sun-Times") with his gripping series featuring Sheriff Cork O'Connor. In "Copper River," Cork is running for his life -- and straight into a murderous conspiracy involving teenage runaways. Desperately avoiding the clutches of professional hit men who have already put a bullet in his leg, Cork finds sanctuary outside the small Michigan town of Bodine. But while he's hiding out in an old resort owned by his cousin Jewell DuBois, a bitter widow with a fourteen-year-old son named Ren, the body of a young girl surfaces along the banks of the Copper River -- and then another teenager vanishes. Instead of thwarting his assassins, Cork focuses on tracking a ring of killers who prey on innocent children -- before anyone else falls victim. But as his deadly followers close in, Cork realizes he's made an error any good man might make -- and it may be his last.

A disappearance and a dead body put Cork O'Connor's family in the crosshairs of a killer in the twentieth book in the New York Times bestselling series from William Kent Krueger­, "a master storyteller at the top of his game" (Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author).The disappearance of a local politician's teenaged daughter is major news in Minnesota. As a huge manhunt is launched to find her, Cork O'Connor's grandson stumbles across the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman—but nobody seems that interested. Nobody, that is, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police. As Cork and the tribal officers dig into the circumstances of this mysterious and grim discovery, they uncover a connection to the missing teenager. And soon, it's clear that Cork's grandson is in danger of being the killer's next victim.

Three heartpounding New York Times bestselling Cork O'Connor mysteries in one impossible-to-put-down ebook!Vermilion Drift: Cork stumbles across the remains of six murder victims in an underground mine. Five are connected to a series of old unsolved disappearances. But the sixth is fresh. What's worse, two of the victims—including the most recent—were killed with Cork's gun. As Cork searches for answers, he must dig into his own past and that of his father, a well-respected man who harbored a ghastly truth. Northwest Angle: Amid the wreckage of a violent storm, Cork O'Connor and his daughter Jenny discover a body. Nearby, a baby boy lies hungry and dehydrated but still very much alive. Powerful forces in pursuit of the child follow them to the isolated Northwest Angle, where it's impossible to tell who is friend or foe. Trickster's Point: Cork O'Connor sits deep in the wilderness with his good friend Jubal...