Wednesday, September 02, 2009

HEAVEN'S KEEP by William Kent Krueger

A small plane carrying Cork O'Connor's wife Jo goes missing in Wyoming. After a week-long search, Cork and his son Stephen begin to accept the fact Jo is dead. Six months later, two women approach Cork with evidence that the plane's pilot was an impostor. This gives Cork new hope that Jo's life may not have ended as he assumed, but his new search for answers provokes a trail of murders.

I'm a fan of Krueger's short fiction, but had only read the first Cork book before I was offered Heaven's Keep to review. I remembered Cork and Jo's volatile dynamic from Iron Lake. Part of what tortures Cork and drives his efforts is an unresolved feud with Jo.

Krueger's portrayal of Cork and Stephen's reactions to losing Jo are meaty and genuine. I applaud Krueger and other authors willing to take the creative leap of killing off a major character, injecting a fictional world with realism and resonance.

4 comments:

Ali Karim said...

Kent Rocks

Ali

MysterLynch said...

Kent is not only a damn fine writer, but a really great guy.

Kent Morgan said...

I think you need to read the other seven books between Iron Lake and Heaven's Keep in order to get an understanding of the relationship between Cork and Jo and be in the position to comment about it. I've been buying and reading this series since the beginning and Krueger is one of the few authors whose books I purchase in hardcover as soon as the latest arrives in my local mystery bookstore. While I enjoyed Heaven's Keep, it's not near the top of my Krueger list.

Gerald So said...

Kent, I agree that reading the others in the series would have helped me gain perspective on Cork and Jo's relationship, but the timing couldn't be helped. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see what I thought of HEAVEN'S KEEP with only my memory of IRON LAKE to go on.