"Vermilion Drift" by William Kent Krueger

"Vermilion Drift"
by William Kent Krueger
Published by Atria books, 2010
305 pages

When it comes to sitting down with a good book, you have to get one that not only piques your interest but also is told in such a way that you not only get lost in the story but the setting as well. William Kent Krueger does this superbly. This is the second of his novels I've read and both novels have the intriguing storyline that gets tangled and twisted the more involved you become in the story. Krueger also has a skill when it comes to wordcraft. He describes the scenery of the settings in such a masterful way that the his world comes to life. I found myself not only easily visualizing the settings but I could do this in full panoramic color. Krueger is the Michelangelo of words.

This story is another Cork O'Conner mystery. Cork is a part Native American former Sheriff now performing services as a private detective in Tamarack County, Minnesota. He recently lost his wife and his children are pretty much out seeking their own lives. Cork begins this book working two cases; one, a missing person and the second mysterious threats to mine workers.

The Department of Energy is looking at an abandoned iron mine to bury nuclear waste. The locals, especially those that live on the Reservation above the mine are protesting. Several members involved have received notes written in a dripping blood font warning not to go through with the nuclear waste disposal plans. When the same warning appears in a section of the mine that is supposed to be inaccessible unless through security stations Cork sees a mystery that needs to be solved.

On top of that Cork is hired to find a prominent woman that has gone missing. The two cases come together when a hidden section of the mine is discovered along with numerous dead bodies. Some of the bodies go back to when Cork was only 13 years old, nearly 50 years, when his dad was sheriff and the area was plagued by the disappearance of several local women.

The case then forces Cork to revisit his past and uncover secrets that may have been best left buried.

With twists and turns in the story and plotline, this book will keep you guessing through to the end.

"Heaven's Keep" by William Kent Kreuger

"Heaven's Keep"
by William Kent Kreuger
Published by Atria Books

Cork O'Connor, part Ojibwe, former Sheriff, has an argument with his wife, Jo, an attorney. She leaves on a chartered plane on a business trip to represent a group of Native Americans as the plead their case for casino rights in Wyoming. Along the way they group must stop to pick up a representative of the Arapahoes in Wyoming and then leave for Seattle. Leaving Wyoming the chartered plane runs into a severe storm and goes down. Not only the unfinished business between Cork and Jo is up in the air but the whole idea of the plane crash seems strange.

Cork cannot just sit at home waiting for reports so he decides to go to Wyoming and do what he can. He decides to take his teenage son, Stephen, so he will not grow up thinking he could have done more. As if this weren't enough to trouble Cork, a land developer wants to purchase the the lakefront land in Cork's hometown, including the land where Cork runs a small fast food style diner. The developer is chock full o' money and lawyers, but Cork does not want the land turned into a bunch of condos and ruin the landscape. Hugh Parmer, Texas millionaire and land developer finally decides to approach Cork, man to man. But with Cork's wife missing, Parmer tells Cork this can wait and to go find his wife, he also offers to help anyway he can.

Flying to Wyoming on Parmer's personal jet, Cork and Stephen arrive in Wyoming to find that the local Sheriff is correlating searches through many assets, however a tribal elder has had a vision and the Native Americans interpret that vision showing the plane to have gone down in an area nowhere near the search area, and are conducting their own searches. The Sheriff downplays the vision because the elder that received the vision is a typical "drunk Indian."

In related news the pilot of the plane, another Native American, is found to have been videotaped at a bar the night before the flight drinking to beyond excess. This creates a new hype to the story to be covered by the mass media looking for the next story.

After many days of searching only to be put off by more snowstorms, Cork and Stephen head home accepting they've done everything possible.

At this point in the book the reader can get the feeling that the story could easily end there with a tragic end, but William Kent Krueger won't let the story end there. At this point the author takes the reader on a thrilling ride that shows things are never what they seem to be. With exciting chases and uncovering hidden plots within plots, Krueger has written a novel with an explosive outcome that uncovers what people can and will do to become a savior for their own community.

Several months later, still grieving, Cork is contacted by the wife of the man who owned and flew the charter plane. An unlawful death suit has been filed against the pilot's estate alleging that he had been drinking the night before the flight disappeared and his ability to fly the plane was impaired. But credible evidence suggests he was not flying the plane that crashed. And if he didn't fly the plane into the storm, then who did? It seems also that the plane may have not gone down and that it was flown safely to a hiding place. And that the pilot on film is not the same pilot hired to fly the plane. Cork O'Connor returns to Wyoming this time with a different search agenda.

Just when you get comfortable with this novel the author will throw you a curve or a red herring and you never know which it is until the exciting end.