Manitou Canyon

In Edgar-winner Krueger’s uneven 15th Cork O’Connor thriller (after 2014’s Windigo Island), Lindsay Harris and her brother, Trevor, hire the ex-sheriff turned PI to find their architect grandfather, John Harris, who recently vanished from Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Winter is coming, and Cork’s daughter is getting married soon, but the siblings’ plea is compelling and Harris was a childhood friend, so Cork accompanies Lindsay into the wilderness to see what Tamarack County Search and Rescue might have missed. When the pair fails to return, friends and family investigate. Meanwhile, Cork and Lindsay fight for their lives. Honorable and courageous yet full of self-doubt, Cork seeks not only Harris but also redemption for past failures. By contrast, most of Krueger’s female characters lack depth and act only out of love for—or lack of love from—men. References to Ojibwe culture and an extraordinary sense of place provide color and texture, but deliberate pacing and an anticlimactic conclusion undercut an intriguing setup and the plot’s inherent tension. [em]Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller Literary Associates. (Sept.) [/em]