Iron Lake: A Novel (Cork O’Connor Mystery Series #1), by William Kent Krueger

I love to read books in a series, and this is the first one in this series. If you like mysteries, or books set up in the northern woods of Minnesota and the Boundary Waters area, these may be for you. I was recently in the area, and listened to these books; it was great to hear a book where it is set. (It always makes a book more fun for me to  listen to it in the setting; I really feel like I’m so much more immersed in the story!) I listened to the first one, filled with Minnesota snow and cold, on a hot summer day while I hiked – and I think it helped me to keep cool!

Try them for yourself, and see if you feel like you are enjoying this scenic area of Minnesota!

We are mapping our literary journey around Minnesota, so you can see all the interesting places where our favorite fiction is set. Follow our progress on our Google Map, accessible by clicking that link or searching for the title CMLE Reads Across Minnesota!

“Krueger brilliantly evokes northern Minnesota’s lake country — and reveals the dark side of its snow-covered landscape.  Part Irish, part Anishinaabe Indian, Corcoran “Cork” O’Connor is the former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota. Embittered by his “former” status, and the marital meltdown that has separated him from his children, Cork gets by on heavy doses of caffeine, nicotine, and guilt. Once a cop on Chicago’s South Side, there’s not much that can shock him. But when the town’s judge is brutally murdered, and a young Eagle Scout is reported missing, Cork takes on a mind-jolting case of conspiracy, corruption, and scandal.
As a lakeside blizzard buries Aurora, Cork must dig out the truth among town officials who seem dead-set on stopping his investigation in its tracks. But even Cork freezes up when faced with the harshest enemy of all: a small-town secret that hits painfully close to home. ”

• Boundary Waters (Cork O’Connor, #2) 
• Purgatory Ridge (Cork O’Connor, #3) 
• Blood Hollow (Cork O’Connor, #4) 
• Mercy Falls (Cork O’Connor, #5) 
• Copper River (Cork O’Connor, #6) 
• Thunder Bay (Cork O’Connor, #7) 
• Red Knife (Cork O’Connor, #8) 
• Heaven’s Keep (Cork O’Connor, #9) 
• Vermilion Drift (Cork O’Connor, #10) 
• Northwest Angle (Cork O’Connor, #11) 
• Trickster’s Point (Cork O’Connor, #12) 
• Tamarack County (Cork O’Connor, #13) 
• Windigo Island (Cork O’Connor, #14) 
• Manitou Canyon (Cork O’Connor, #15) 
• Sulfur Springs (Cork O’Connor, #16)