Kent Krueger brings readers back to Tamarack County

With the 20th book in his Cork O’Connor mystery series ready to be published on Aug. 20, 2024, local author William Kent Krueger took some time to ruminate on his career.

“When I think of every writer I know, none of us believed that after that first book we wrote, there would be 15, 20 or more books to follow,” he said.

With his latest offering, “Spirit Crossing,” Krueger takes his readers back to Tamarack County, Iron Lake, Crow Point and the house on Gooseberry Lane.

The half-Anishinaabe, half-Irish O’Connor’s children are grown now, but their lives are still connected to the small town of Aurora where they grew up. Even Annie, the daughter who has spent many years working in Guatemala, is back home.

“A good series continues to grow its characters, yet they remain the same. It’s like watching your family grow,” Krueger said. “Writers try to give their readers people they care about.” And for Krueger, that includes many familiar characters as well as the introduction of new ones who interact with the O’Connor clan.

In his latest book, Krueger digs into the tragedy of missing Indigenous women.

“You can’t deal with any Indigenous culture in this country or any other country without becoming aware of all the issues they have to deal with,” Krueger said. “A lot of stories arise about issues. For a long time I have been aware of the tragedy of missing Indigenous people. The Natives have know about it for a long time. Only now is the White population becoming more aware of it.

“When I was looking for the next story for the Cork series, I decided this was what I was going to write about.” Krueger said he checked in with his friends in the Ojibwa community to be sure that as a White man, he had their blessing to deal with this story. “To a person, they said to go ahead,” he said. “So I have done my best to bring these issues to what is essentially a White demographic and write about what happens not just in this nation, but in other nations around the world.” Krueger cited the negative treatment of Indigenous people in the past in Canada and New Zealand, where the government has recently acknowledged all the horrors the Maori, in particular, faced. “Indigenous people everywhere are threatened and challenged in so many ways,” he said.

In “Spirit Crossing,” Krueger has simultaneous stories taking place. “I look for a braiding of the stories, so they all come together as one solid story line,” he said. “I don’t know why I do that – it’s just the way I tell stories. And there are so many to tell.”

He said it has been a long time since he had written about Annie, one of Cork’s daughters, so he decided to bring her back in this book. “It comes naturally to tell a story from different viewpoints, but the series is often written from Cork’s point of view,” Krueger said. “This book has a different perspective.”

Krueger said there are several ways to create suspense in a book. “The most effective way is to ask a question and not answer it right away or to pose a threat and not resolve it right away. It is that space between asking a question and answering it or posing a threat and resolving it that true suspense arises.

“I try to create suspense in as many ways as I can. I am not always putting people in danger,” Krueger continued. “Of course I do that, but that’s not the only way I try to create a compelling mystery.”

According to Krueger, he is well aware of the familiarity with characters and place that are such important parts of his series of Cork O’Connor books. “Readers have come to love Tamarack County and embrace all the characters, not just Cork and his family, but other characters they connect with.”

Krueger said “Spirit Crossing” deals with a difficult subject, and he wanted to give it the attention and seriousness it deserves. “But I am a storyteller,” he said. “It’s what I do. So even when I am creating a story that might be difficult for my readers to read, I know it is the path I should be on.”

 

Krueger is moving forward on the process of turning the Cork O’Connor series to either film or television. He said he signed an option a year ago, then the Hollywood strike occurred, so nothing happened for several months. Now he is taking two producers on a trip up North to visit the Iron Range, attend a powwow and a blueberry festival. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I want them to see northern Minnesota through the eyes of a guy who loves it.”

He said it will be a challenge to put together a show about Cork, who is not a detective or a cop. He is a private investigator, but the stories don’t revolve as much around that work as they do the personal connection he often has with a case.

“I want to ask them how they chose my work, from all the books that are out there,” Krueger said. “What is it they believe they can use from my books to reach viewers everywhere?”

Krueger said he will wait to see what happens. At one time he had thought Sam Shepard or Ed Harris would be good choices to play Cork, but Shepard is deceased and Harris too old to fit the role. “I think it would be best to get an unknown face to play Cork,” he said.

“If it does go into production, I think the most intriguing question will be who is going to play Henry.” Henry is the elderly Anishinaabe healer who lives at Crow Point and provides a sense of peace in the stories.

Meanwhile, Krueger is at work on his next Cork O’Connor novel, which is set to be published in the fall of 2025. “I was putting it aside for awhile, because I didn’t have an idea for the story. And then suddenly I did,” he said.

Once he finishes that, he will start to work on his next stand-alone book. He has written three so far. “This should keep me busy for the next few years,” Krueger said.