Actually, I thought I’d have a review for you today because I’m sailing through a book. But, I had something more important to do last night. I had phone calls from a couple friends that I hadn’t talked with in a while. I don’t talk on the phone much, and, as a matter of fact, can count on one hand the people I enjoy talking with on the phone. These are two of them. So, I picked one of Sandie Herron’s reviews of an audiobook to share with you. Thanks, Sandie.

Windigo Island
Written by William Kent Krueger
Narrated by David Chandler
Series:  Cork O’Connor, Book 14
Unabridged Audiobook
Recorded Books (8/19/2014)
Listening Length:  11 hours 46 minutes

Former lawman, now private investigator Cork O’Connor has been summoned by Ojibwe medicine man Henry Meloux.  His nephew, Daniel English, has come asking for Henry’s help.  His cousin, Mariah Arceneaux, has been missing for a year.  The body of the friend she supposedly ran away with has just washed up onto Windigo Island on the Bad Bluff Reservation bringing new fears for Mariah’s safety.  Mariah’s mother wants Henry to come, but Henry has refused to go, saying she should come to him. 

Surprised by his refusal, Cork says that he will go, and his daughter Jenny, touched by the girl’s story and fueled by a vision, accompanies him.  When they arrive at Mariah’s home on the Bad Bluff reservation on Lake Superior in Wisconsin, they find a chaotic household run by her mother Louise, confined to a wheelchair.  The local sheriff, a favorite teacher, the dead girl’s father all have little to add to Mariah’s story. Their only clue is that another slightly older girl named Raven may have driven Mariah and her friend away.

Mariah’s mother Louise insists on visiting Henry now.  After a grueling sweat, she finally breaks down and tells the story of her own younger days, when she was taken to the boats that motored into Duluth, a huge lake port on Lake Superior, and into prostitution.  Powerless to have stopped it then, Louise still felt powerless to stop Mariah from going there.  But with Henry’s help, Louise is determined to find Mariah now.

Louise and Henry, Cork, Jenny, and Daniel all travel to Duluth.   Following different courses of action with a variety of people, they finally make contact with Raven and learn what has happened to Mariah.  The challenge will be getting her away from the men who now control her every move.

Cork’s daughter Jenny feels acutely aware of the life she never had to face herself.  Cork is almost murderous in his focus in defeating the men who control Mariah.  Mariah’s mother Louise is determined but knows she cannot do this alone.  Medicine man Henry Meloux is equally determined yet is the voice of reason.  Mariah’s uncle Daniel is in step with Cork yet is finding a tender spot for Jenny.  Each searcher wants to become rescuer and brings a different set of skills and values to this task.

I kept the speed of David Chandler’s narration turned up slightly to counteract his languid pace.  Indeed, the overall pace of this story, at the beginning, lacked suspense.  However, the closer we came to Mariah, the more intense the tale became.  And at the end, engrossing, taut, and perilous.  More than Mariah’s life was in danger.

Krueger has again brought us a tale of Cork O’Connor and his family from Aurora, Minnesota along with his relatives and friends and those he loves most.  He serves as protector to them all, a role he seemed born to, a role he feels he could do better at, despite the evidence in the people that surround him.  That summer brought healing to many following their ordeals.  I do hope they’re up to another adventure soon.