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Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger
Cork O'Connor #2
Mystery
2010
Narrated by David Chandler
Finished on March 6, 2025
Rating: 2/5 (OK)
Publisher's Blurb:
The Quetico-Superior Wilderness: more than two million acres of forest, white-water rapids, and uncharted islands on the Canadian-American border. Somewhere in the heart of this unforgiving territory, a young woman named Shiloh -- a country-western singer at the height of her fame -- has disappeared.
Her father arrives in Aurora, Minnesota, to hire former sheriff Cork O'Connor to find his daughter, and Cork joins a search party that includes an ex-con, two FBI agents, and a ten-year-old boy. Others are on her trail as well -- men hired not just to find her, but to kill her.
As the expedition ventures deeper into the wilderness, strangers descend on Aurora, threatening to spill blood on the town's snowy streets. Meanwhile, out on the Boundary Waters, winter falls hard. Cork's team of searchers loses contact with civilization, and like the brutal winds of a Minnesota blizzard, death -- violent and sudden -- stalks them.
Meh.
I enjoy having a series to read over the course of a year or two, and once I got caught up on Susan Hill and Deborah Crombie's mysteries, I thought it would be nice to give William Kent Krueger's books a try. I re-read Iron Lake to refresh my memory of the cast of characters, as well as Cork's backstory, and enjoyed it quite well. I began reading Boundary Waters, but struggled to stay engaged, so I switched to the audiobook. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the reader, and my interest continued to wane, but I stuck with it to the end. I'm not sure what it was about this particular mystery that failed to entertain me, but I'm not compelled to move on to #3 (Purgatory Ridge). I have two more recent releases in the series on my shelf, and since I've learned over the years that the later installments in a mystery series tend to be better, I may give them a try. We'll see.
I've read a couple of Krueger's non-mystery books, and I liked them a lot. I'm sorry this was a disappointment.
ReplyDeleteDeb, I definitely prefer his stand-alone novels.
DeleteLes, I understand a series not necessarily being to your taste. I had thought I had read several books in his series, but looking back I think I've only read Iron Lake. I did read and enjoy Ordinary Grace several years ago. Our mystery group is reading The River We Remember for our May meeting and I'm looking forward to that one. My husband on the other hand has read almost all of Krueger's books and liked them. Each of us has our own favorites.
ReplyDeleteKay, I'm surprised this wasn't more enjoyable for me since I really like his other books. I'm going to move on to CJ Box's series since I really enjoyed Open Season. Maybe I'll enjoy those more than Krueger's.
DeleteToo bad it wasn't more enjoyable. Sometimes I like those trek thru the wilderness kinds of novels. The author seems to have more books than I originally knew about. I like the focus you're doing on various authors. It's illuminating ...
ReplyDeleteSusan, I'm enjoying my dedicated author reading this year. I'll probably pick up a couple of Krueger's more recent installments in this series (they're already on my shelves) later this year, but I don't feel compelled to read the entire series in order. Next up will be another by CJ Box.
DeleteI still have Krueger on my list but haven't gotten to his books yet. This year I am certainly reading more so I hope to try one of the series.
ReplyDeleteTina, his stand-alones are very good. Ordinary Grace is an all-time favorite of mine.
DeleteI didn't even know he wrote mysteries. Too bad this one was meh. I have enjoyed his other books.
ReplyDeleteTi, yeah, it was disappointing. He has 21 books in this series!
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