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Trickster's Point    by William Kent Krueger Amazon.com order for
Trickster's Point
by William Kent Krueger
Order:  USA  Can
Atria, 2012 (2012)
Hardcover, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Trickster's Point follows Northwest Angle as the twelfth in a consistently high quality series starring ex-cop Corcoran 'Cork' O'Connor, Irish and part Anishinaabe Indian. Cork's beloved wife Jo was murdered in Heaven's Keep, but he has recently become involved with Rainy Bisonette. He lives in his northern Minnesota hometown of Aurora, where he was once sheriff, and adores his new grandson Waaboo (adopted by Cork's daughter Jenny in the previous episode).

This new adventure opens on what at first appears to be a hunting accident. Jubal Little was a charismatic politician, who was expected to become the first Native American governor of Minnesota. He and Cork were close childhood friends, with a shared dark secret (the death of a bully and rapist) and a shared first love for Winona Crane. Jubal died with an arrow through his heart (which he believed was Cork's) while they were hunting together. Cork stayed with him until the end - and the authorities could not understand why he let Jubal talk for those three hours rather than going for help. Cork wonders if he's being framed. He also needs to find out who Rhiannon is, and what she has to do with Jubal Little's life and death.

Despite Cork's close ties to local law enforcement, he is immediately the chief suspect, which of course gives him a strong motivation to solve the case. It does not help that the unusual fletching pattern on the arrow that killed Jubal matches Cork's and that they had had strong disagreements lately. As he steadily follows leads, helped by some locals and hindered by others, Cork muses over his and Jubal's joint history and what led up to the politician's death. And Cork has some conflict with his sixteen-year-old son over his choices, though Stephen acknowledges that his father is Ogichidaa, 'someone who stood between his people and bad things.'

The pace of Trickster's Point is leisurely, interspersed with regular bursts of violence. And nothing is what it seems from beginning to end of this mystical mystery, which has an optical illusion at its heart. Highly recommended!

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