Monday, March 29, 2010

Book Review: Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay, a new outing for Corcoran O’Connor and the dark North Woods, audio book by William Kent Krueger, read by Buck Schirmer.

I first read about deliberate, thoughtful sheriff Corcoran O’Connor in Mercy Falls, and I see from Amazon that he has been treading those pineneedle-covered forest trails, running into the occasional degenerate murderer, for several books. The last one I read is Thunder Bay.

Thunder Bay is actually in Canada, but the story begins in Minnesota. O’Connor has resigned as sheriff of Tamarack County. His friend, an almost 100-year-old Ojibwe medicine man named Henry, is hospitalized and asks O’Connor to find his son, who would then be 73. Son? What son? O’Connor had known the old man all his life, no mention of a son.

He reluctantly agrees and at least googles the mother’s name, one of two clues the old man had. The other clue is a gold watch with a beautiful Latin woman’s picture in it. Of course, through the wonder of Inspector Google, he finds the connection right away. The son, a zillionaire industrialist, is a recluse a la Howard Hughes on an island near Thunder Bay.

O’Connor journeys to the place, bringing the watch. By then, he has learned the old man’s story, which we readers learn to the tune of half the book. I won’t go into it—but I cried and I am not usually a sappy mess.

The son is a wackypack, with long white hair and a closetful of clean bathrobes and surgical masks. Or is he?

I will leave it to you.

There is a second story line I won’t go into and all I can say is that the book nimbly dodges Nancy Drew World a few times, for which I was thankful.

Buck Schirmer? The reader? Wonderful bass voice. My gosh, you could take a bath in his voice. I asked my daughter why I never meet anyone with a voice like that. She said it was because I never went anywhere.

Oh.

Star Lawrence owns a health website called HEALTH’Sass at http://healthsass.blogspot.com/ and a recession site at http://hopeycopey.blogspot.com/. She can be reached at jkellaw@aol.com.

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