Through five previous Cork O’Connor novels, Krueger has put his beleaguered hero through the wringer and then some. As Copper River, the sixth installment in the popular series, gets under way, O’Connor is on the run from hired killers who have already deposited a slug in his leg. This after the poor bastard spent much of the previous book, Mercy Falls, being stalked by a mysterious assailant and trying to solve the brutal murder of a well-connected businessman. Krueger’s novels always have a terrific sense of place and a solid feel for local color and regional characters, yet who knew the north woods were so crowded with dead bodies, secrets, sinister suspects, and interlopers? All right, maybe we all knew, but it’s a bit creepy all the same. This time out, O’Connor seeks refuge in a remote area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where he hopes to lick his wounds and shake his pursuers, yet murder and mystery dog him even there.
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