
Purgatory Ridge
Reviews

I love a good series I can get behind that features a strong lead throughout. Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt, Tom Clancy and Jack Ryan, and my favorite duo of late, WKK and Cork O'Connor. O'Connor is a sheriff/ex-sheriff up in Northern Minnesota who solves crimes. The local Native American community often plays a central role, as does the harsh environment and landscape. As a native Minnesotan, I just can't get enough of the series. Purgatory Ridge is the third of seventeen O'Connor mysteries, and fully lived up to how much I loved the first two: Iron Lake and Boundary Waters. When you think "mystery" you might think empty and formulaic, which is honestly often true. But that's not the case with WKK's books. The characters have incredible depth and the relational aspects — between husband and wife, between sheriff and community, between neighbors — are often explored as much as the main plotlines. Frankly, I don't really even need to tell you what Purgatory Ridge is about, other than saying there's a bomb, a kidnapping, and an eventual plot twist and resolution. Of course there's plenty more, but you don't need to know the specific plot before just picking up the series and getting started. You won't be disappointed. It's perfect nighttime reading for me (I do my intellectual heaving lifting in the early hours and relax with this stuff).

Cork O'Connor just gets better and better. And William Kent Krueger is a great storyteller that will draw you in. Looking forward to the next.