Week 20: Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger (Pocket Star, 2001, paperback)
This is the last of three novels I read while I hiked Isle Royale National Park. Isle Royale is a large wooded island in Lake Superior. I found this one while searching for novels about the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. I’ve canoed and portaged across the BWCA for several years, and was curious how Krueger conveyed this natural and isolated area.
The main character is Cork O’Connor, a former sheriff in Aurora Minnesota (where I stayed for few days before going to Isle Royale) now operating a burger joint. I think the story of his last days as sheriff are covered in the first novel of this crime novel series, Iron Lake. I’m not much of a reader of mystery novels, but I wanted something light (in tone and weight) for my backpacking. This fit the bill, although it didn’t do much to make a reader of these types of novels.
The story takes place in the BWCA and in Aurora, as Cork and his wife independently work to figure out who is trying to kill Shiloh, a famous musician who has retreated into the BWCA in search of solitude and time to soul-search. The novels contains all you’d expect from a crime novel—murders committed by stereotypical killers, red-herring motivations, personal revelations, and the intellectual acuity of Cork and his wife.
I read this novel because I hoped it would help me re-experience my trips through the BWCA. It didn’t do that very well, as not much is done to convey the experience of canoeing the lakes and portaging between them. I recognize the setting is the background and the real story is the crime and its resolution, but I still hoped that the BWCA would at least come through behind the scenes. It’s there, but it seems sensationalized for the story and not as authentic as I’d like. I’m perhaps being too harsh, as there are details here that a reader not familiar with the BWCA would appreciate. I may be looking for more than a novel like this can deliver, but I was disappointed.
Beyond that, though, I found myself wondering about Cork O’Connor as the lead character. At the end, he didn’t standout in any way as a major character, neither in his strengths nor foibles. In fact, he wasn’t really much of a character. In Anna Pidgeon’s mystery novel that I’d just read, she did a better job of giving her lead character style and personality. I could appreciate what drove her, and what troubled her. With Cork, I didn’t feel much about him. And for a novel like this, attachment to the main character is crucial.
I ultimately couldn’t find much to recommend for this novel, beyond an interest in the BWCA and Aurora.
Next week . . . Belinda by Maria Edgeworth.