Northwest Angle by Wiliam Kent Krueger

"I believe no one belongs to anyone else. You, me, Waaboozoons, we are all dust, borrowed for a little while from Grandmother Earth. And even that dust does not belong to her. She has borrowed it from all creation, which is the Great Mystery, which is Kitchimanidoo. And it you ask this old man, I would say that another way to think about Kitchimanidoo is as a great gift. Kitchimanidoo is not about keeping. Nothing belongs to anyone. All of creation is meant as giving."

               -Henry Meloux, Ojibwe Mide, from the novel

Eleven Cork O'Connor novels down and 8 to go! Northwest Angle was one of my favorites; I could hardly put it down. Definitely a 5.

I have mentioned before that I feel I know O'Connor and his family pretty well by now. Maybe that is part of what draws me into this series. That, and the fact that Krueger weaves a suspenseful story and has amazing powers of description. I am such a fan of all his writing!

In this novel, Cork has arranged a vacation in Lake of the Woods aboard a houseboat for the family---daughters Anne and Jenny, son Stephen, sister-in-law Rose and her husband, Mal. The danger and excitement begin right away with a unique storm called a derecho. ("A bow-shaped formation of towering black clouds that generate straight-line winds of hurricane force.") [Ironically, I began reading this book as Hurricane Ian was hitting my home state of Florida!]

Cork and Jenny had left the others and taken the dinghy out on a father-daughter side trip, meant to be short. As (bad) luck would have it the derecho hit causing great challenges for both groups. While Jenny and Cork are separated and searching for each other, she discovers a rustic, isolated cabin. As she explores, she finds a young native woman dead, obviously a victim of foul play. When she hears whimpering outside the cabin, Jenny discovers a baby hidden under some branches and realizes she is the child's savior.

After Cork finds Jenny, they both have to worry about escaping the possible return of the murderer. Later while Jenny is seriously bonding with the baby, later called Waaboozoons, Cork will work with locals to try to find the killer of the young woman, Lily Littledog, and unravel nefarious activities by a religious cult in the area.

A few novels into this series, I found Henry Meloux, one we might call a medicine man, and an old friend of Cork's, to be one of my favorite characters. I especially appreciated his words of wisdom and decided I would start each blog post with a quote from Henry. Although Henry is in his 90's and not in great health, I surely hope he lives on!

In a few weeks, I will order Trickster's Point, #12. I'd love to ask the author when/how he decided each novel would have a 2-word title.