Sulfur Springs

June 26, 2017
Former sheriff Cork O’Connor, Edgar-winner Krueger’s tragedy-plagued hero, faces further heartache in his moving and suspenseful 16th outing (after 2016’s Manitou Canyon). Cork, who lost his father and his first wife to violence, is in bed with his second wife, Rainy Bisonette, a Native American healer, one night in Aurora, Minn., when Rainy retrieves a disturbing voicemail from her son Peter, who’s been living in Arizona. Peter has turned his troubled life around, kicking his drug habit and using the lessons he learned to become a substance abuse counselor. His garbled message, however, seems to indicate that he has killed someone named Rodriguez. Cork and Rainy race to Arizona, where they’re stunned to learn that Peter left his job more than a year earlier. As they search for Peter, Cork becomes increasingly uneasy about his growing sense that Rainy is hiding something significant from him. As usual, Krueger does a fine job combining distinctive characters with a satisfying plot. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller Literary Associates.

April 1, 2017

Originally scheduled for September, this new novel by Edgar Award winner Krueger sends private investigator Cork O'Connor from his forest-shaded Minnesota home to brutally hot Arizona, where new wife Rainy's son Peter has disappeared after calling to claim that he murdered someone named Rodriguez. No one in the town where he's been receiving mail seems to know Peter. But everyone knows Rodriguez, head of a Mexican cartel.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017
Cork O'Connor is the former sheriff of Tamarack County, Minnesota, and current burger-joint owner and part-time private eye. In 14 previous mysteries, O'Connor has used his deep knowledge of the Northwoods to track killers and survive when he himself is tracked (as in the pulse-pounding Manitou Canyon, 2016). Now Cork has to venture far afield, to southern Arizona, in order to trace the whereabouts of his new bride's son, who leaves a garbled phone message saying he has killed someone. Some of the worth of the O'Connor series, which gives readers an intimate knowledge of the Northwoods, gets lost in the transition to Arizona. O'Connor continually complains about the region's heat and scenery. Readers may wonder why Krueger takes his hero on this trip in the first place. The son's background (former drug addict become drug counselor) is intriguing, as is the Twilight Zone quality of everyone he said he knew in Arizona denying any knowledge of him. The action is pretty desultory until various strands come together (including the workings of a terrifying cartel) for a satisfying conclusion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)