William Kent Krueger Books

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William Kent Krueger is an American Crime writer that has won numerous awards for his Cork O’Connor novels. The author’s love for writing manifested early. By the time Krueger was in third grade, he knew that writing was the career of his dreams. And by this age, he was already writing stories that were drawing interest and praise from his friends, parents, and teachers.

A student of Stanford University, Krueger was a victim of the student protests in the spring of 1970, drawn into conflict with the university’s administration and finding his academic path cut short. That didn’t prevent Krueger from proceeding in life, making a living by digging ditches, logging timber and performing various other odd jobs.

The husband and father of two children wrote many short stories before Iron Lake, his first novel was completed. He was forty-years-old by this time, though that didn’t prevent him from capitalizing on the opportunities for success that suddenly came his way at this point.

William Kent Krueger is best known for the Cork O’Conner series, a collection of novels about Cork O’Conner, a part-Ojibwe and part Irish protagonist living in and around Native American Reservations. Krueger read a lot of books about Ojibwe history before embarking on the task of producing the Cork O’Conner series.

William Kent Krueger Awards

Krueger’s first novel Iron Lake won him the Barry Award, Minnesota Book award and the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, not to mention the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award. Few authors have ever enjoyed such a successful start to their publishing career, at least critically.

Krueger went on to win numerous other awards, this including the Edgar Award, Dilys Award, and back-to-back Anthony awards, not to mention the Readers Choice award and Friends of American Writers Prize.

Best William Kent Krueger Books

Krueger has a passion for the Cork O’Conner novels, this being the series that put him on the map and earned him his fame, with some of the best books in the series including the following:

Mercy Falls: What seems like a routine call to the nearby Ojibwe reservation leaves Cork O’Connor’s life exposed. Finally back as Sheriff of Tamarack County, it comes as surprise to Cork when he is targeted by Sniper Fire.

Cork has no time to ponder the situation because the mutilated body of a Chicago businessman known as Eddie Jacoby has been found hanging over Mercy Falls. Cork’s investigation is complicated by the beautiful private investigator hired by the Jacoby family to look into the case.

But even that proves a little inconsequential when Cork finds a connection between his wife and one of the Jacoby Sons. There are personal motives at play, motives of a dark nature, and Cork will stop at nothing to reveal the truth beneath the turbulent waters of Mercy Falls.

Readers of this book can expect to basically follow the trials of the Tamarack County Sheriff’s office over a period of a few hours. It all starts with the sniper fire that meets Cork and his deputy on a reservation.

It becomes clear that someone has Cork in their sights, and he isn’t the only one they want dead. It isn’t made immediately obvious that the attack has any connection to the death of a wealthy businessman.

This book has a great hook at the start, though some readers won’t appreciate the technique Krueger chooses to deploy. This book won an Anthony Award.

Heaven’s Keep: When Jo’s plane disappears in a snowstorm, Cork accepts that he has lost his wife forever. However, his grief is interrupted by two women who raise doubts about the identity of the pilot of Jo’s plane.

Armed with this little ray of light in the dark, Cork leaves for Wyoming even as various forces seek to throw him off the trail. Cork has to believe that, in following the labyrinthine journey set out before him, he just might find Jo alive and well, waiting for him to rescue her.

William Kent Krueger writes a thrilling adventure that is a little light on the adventure. Slower-paced than most of his other novels, Krueger doesn’t forget to highlight the Native American issues that liter most of his work, and these themes intertwine perfectly with the mystery at the heart of the book. The book is a little more personal than most because it places Cork’s wife at the center of everything.

When Does The Next William Kent Krueger book come out?

The next book by William Kent Krueger is Spirit Crossing and will be released on August, 20th 2024. It is the newest book in the Cork O'Connor Series.

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