FOX CREEK

4.5 stars out of 5.

Unless I know a series is at an end, I never worry too much about whether or not the main character will survive. Oh sure, he or she can get pretty mangled up, but dead? Nope. Not gonna happen. The same can't be said for their loved ones, though - and in this case, worrying about that outcome is one of the main things that kept me flipping the pages of my Kindle.

The other key attractions are the colorful, detailed descriptions of the territory and Native American ways. Former cop Cork O'Connor, now a private investigator who mostly runs a burger joint on Iron Lake in Minnesota, not far from the Canadian border, shares that ancestry; his wife, Rainy, is a Native American who maintains close ties to the local reservation. That includes to her great uncle, Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux, who by most counts is at least 100 years old and still going strong.

For how much longer remains to be seen; in fact, both Henry and Cork's grown son have experienced dreams in which Henry is dead. For now, though, he's not only alive, but he and Rainy are performing healing rituals for a woman named Delores Morriseau, who came to them looking for help with her marriage. Problem is, some not-so-nice people are looking for Delores - but helping her is the farthest thing from their minds.

Henry, though, is at least one step ahead; foreseeing trouble, he leads Delores and Rainy deep into the Boundary Waters to escape. Needless to say, he's an expert guide; but so, apparently, is at least one of their trackers, and they have no intention of leaving the wilderness without their quarry. For the rest of the book, the chase is on - as is the quest by Cork and his friends to find out why the chasers are so intent on capturing Delores and finding her missing husband (hint: It's a timely topic). The ending was to me a bit unexciting, but the ride in between is well worth the time it took to read (which wasn't much, since it was hard to put down). Overall, it's another winning installment in this outstanding and highly recommended series. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

Fox Creek by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books, August 2022); 397 pp.