We’re lucky that Sandie Herron decided to listen to all of William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor mysteries. Today, she reviews the thirteenth audiobook in the series, Tamarack County. Thank you, Sandie.

Tamarack County
Written by William Kent Krueger
Narrated by David Chandler
Series:  Cork O’Connor, Book 13
Unabridged Audiobook
Recorded Books (8/20/2013)
Listening Length:  10 hours 14 minutes
Minnesota Book Award for Genre Fiction

Evelyn Carter was doing some last minute Christmas shopping when a snowstorm descended on Tamarack County.  Her car was found abandoned on a desolate road.  Search and rescue teams found no trace of her.  Her cantankerous husband, a retired judge, is badgering the sheriff while former lawman Cork O’Connor, now private investigator, finds some suspicious items in his home.

Cork’s family is restless at his home on Gooseberry Lane.  Daughter Anne returns home for Christmas greatly troubled.  She has decided to not follow the life path she’d been training for in joining a progressive order of nuns.  Son Stephen is in love with a full-blood Ojibwe girl, Marlee Daychild.  When he arrives at her home to pick her up for a movie, her Uncle Ray’s dog in her care is brutally killed.  Baby Waboo, daughter Jenny’s son, has a nightmare about monsters coming for him. 

Medicine man Henry Meloux is spending the winter in Thunder Bay with his son, but he is also troubled by a recurring vision of evil surrounding the O’Connor household.  Henry’s niece Rainy has gone to Arizona to be with her son, battling addiction again, leaving Cork on his own and uncertain about their future.

While Marlee is driving home with Stephen, they are forced off the road and nearly drown.  Marlee’s Uncle Ray is due out of prison within days so she and her mother go to his apartment to clean only to find disturbing signs of a break in.  In trying to find connections between events, Cork recalls a murder from twenty years ago.  A man had confessed, yet evidence discovered later showed he may not have been guilty.  Unfortunately, Judge Carter had given him the maximum 40-year sentence.  It was Marlee’s Uncle Ray Bluejay Wakemup who brought forth the new evidence.  And it had been Cork as deputy on the case.

What follows are tense, heart-stopping revelations which lead to devastating actions.  Each of the O’Connors is involved in dangerous ways.  Even Henry Meloux returns from Thunder Bay, so greatly troubled by visions of evil.  Just when the action appeared to have resolved, it began anew with dreadful consequences.  Each O’Connor – Cork, Stephen, Anne, and Jenny – is faced with decisions that will change their lives.  It will take all of their courage and determination to find their way out of this adventure.

Krueger continues to treat us to finely crafted mysteries.  Each deftly told adventure also deals with long-term effects and moral dilemmas.  Cork O’Connor is still battling his thoughts on violence, especially gun violence, as he has been over the past several entries in this excellent series.  Narrator David Chandler continues to present us with life in Aurora, Minnesota with all its flaws and beauty.  I am very much looking forward to learning what time and healing bring to the O’Connors and Aurora.