BLOOD HOLLOW

In his fourth case (Purgatory Ridge, 2001, etc.), Cork O’Connor has to solve the mystery of who killed Charlotte Kane. But which Charlotte Kane?

Citizens of Aurora, Minnesota, are alarmed by a sudden rise in the community’s homicide rate. A few years back the trend would have been less unsettling because everyone trusted Sheriff Cork O’Connor, unlike the uniformed Humpty-Dumptys currently in charge of local law and order. But there’s enough cop left in the old campaigner to keep him poised and ready, so when 17-year-old Charlotte Kane, beautiful daughter of reclusive Dr. Fletcher Kane, turns up horribly murdered, Cork answers the call with a modest “someone ought to pay attention.” The rich field of suspects includes young Solemn Winter Moon, “a kind of Ojibwe Romeo” Charlotte had played around with for a while; Father Mal Thorne, a Catholic priest with a checkered past; and the worthy Dr. Kane himself, whose relationship with his daughter has a Krafft-Ebing subtext. But it’s not until a second corpse is also identified as that of Charlotte Kane that Cork fully understands the fine mess he’s expected to untangle.

Local color is a plus as always, but Krueger’s plotting goes from uncertain to heavy-handed, while the unwaveringly virtuous Cork crosses the edge and becomes too good to be interesting.