This book begins with the discovery of a girl's body on Windigo Island by a group of Native American boys visiting the island to prove their bravery. The island is bleak and forbidding with a reputation that enhances it.
The dead girl is a friend of the missing Mariah Arceneaux whose Ojibwe family asked Midi Henry Meloux to help find. He refuses until the mother comes to him with her daughter's most precious possession. Henry is a friend, Cork O'Connor, private investigator, who vows to help. Once a law officer, O'Connor is retired . With his daughter, Jenny, who he reluctantly takes along, the two begins searching. They pool their ideas and thoughts to help the Arceneaux family find their daughter.
Teenage Native Americans often flee from the reservation to find a better life. There are many reasons for their flight including alcoholism, no job opportunities, and poverty. This book focuses on their hopelessness and the very real result of their independence that often finds girls forced into prostitution.
The reader discovers much about how about the interelationships between family, community and spirituality in the Iron Range Native American reservation. There is considerable use of the Ojibwe language and traditions that lend authenticity to the novel. I particularly liked this aspect. What was distressing was how many law enforcement officers beyond the reservation appeared to ignore the plight of such families. This is a good story that explores what can happen to these teenagesr, particularly young girls, who face a reality they never knew existed until they leave the reservation.
The dead girl is a friend of the missing Mariah Arceneaux whose Ojibwe family asked Midi Henry Meloux to help find. He refuses until the mother comes to him with her daughter's most precious possession. Henry is a friend, Cork O'Connor, private investigator, who vows to help. Once a law officer, O'Connor is retired . With his daughter, Jenny, who he reluctantly takes along, the two begins searching. They pool their ideas and thoughts to help the Arceneaux family find their daughter.
Teenage Native Americans often flee from the reservation to find a better life. There are many reasons for their flight including alcoholism, no job opportunities, and poverty. This book focuses on their hopelessness and the very real result of their independence that often finds girls forced into prostitution.
The reader discovers much about how about the interelationships between family, community and spirituality in the Iron Range Native American reservation. There is considerable use of the Ojibwe language and traditions that lend authenticity to the novel. I particularly liked this aspect. What was distressing was how many law enforcement officers beyond the reservation appeared to ignore the plight of such families. This is a good story that explores what can happen to these teenagesr, particularly young girls, who face a reality they never knew existed until they leave the reservation.
Windigo Island by William Kent Krueger. This is the first Krueger book I have read, but it will not be the last. Set in Duluth and the Iron Range Native American reservation communities, the book explores teenage hopelessness and prostitution in a way that reveals much about how family, community, and spirituality impacts our options in life. The book slowly peals back the layers of these interconnected characters, showing us the soulnessness of the windigo-like pimps, the ruthless cluelessness of the sex purchasers, and the fear and despair of the young girls caught up in the trade. But it also show the power of family and community in what reads like a mix between a police procedural and private detective hybrid. The lead characters, Cork O'Connor and his daughter are shown with all their compassion, foibles, and struggles balancing beautiful against the despair and broken families of the lost girls. The power of Lake Superior and the northern Minnesota lifestyle is brilliant portrayed bringing great depth to this inspiring and hopeful book. This is a must read.
I am one of William Kent Krueger's biggest fans as I have read all of his Cork O'Connor books now-this being the last. Now I will have to patiently await a new one in the series to be published. I went into this book "Windigo Island" with an open mind as I had read some of the reviews online beforehand, fans accounts were saying it left them displeased as Krueger wrote some of the book threw Cork O'Connor's daughter Jenny's eyes. I respectfully disagree as I think it added credability to the series. I was able to see the main character and private investigator Cork O'Connor in a different light and at a different Angle. Cork O'Connor is a character I have come to love and admire in Krueger's books, but in the journey I have come to know he like all of us and is not without flaws. In this addition he is called upon by his faithful friend amd elder Henry Meloux's (an Ojibwe Indian Mide) family to find a missing girl. In previous books the mythical and evil beast of the Ojibwe's a "Windigo" has come to haunt and spread its evil throughout Cork's own life. Jenny pleads with her Dad Cork to go and help with this investigation. She from previous encounters has had a vision that she is needed to help save this girl so feels called. Through her eye's we see Cork differently in many ways as he makes this one personal. Henry gives Cork obvious warnings that come from experience/faith on how to deal with the evil ahead. Jenny takes heed and listen's to Henry's wisdom as it falls on Cork's deaf ears. Again I enjoyed reading this book and how his family become's involved, that is part of what makes this whole series great as we grow, learn, and love the O'Connor family, friends, and surroundings. This for me was a page turner, and like many of the books in the series, I absoutely was relentless in my race to read to the end. The only thing I was disappointed in was the fact when I had turned the last page!
Eadie B. (eadieburke) -
When the body of a teenage Ojibwe girl washes up on the shore of an island in Lake Superior, the residents of the nearby Bad Bluff reservation whisper that it was the work of a deadly mythical beast, the Windigo, or a vengeful spirit called Michi Peshu. Such stories have been told by the Ojibwe people for generations, but they don't explain how the girl and her friend, Mariah Arceneaux, disappeared a year ago. At the request of the Arceneaux family, private investigator Cork O'Connor takes on the case.
This was another excellent read from William Kent Krueger. I have read all his books before this one and he does not disappoint. His books are always riveting and keeps you on the edge of your seat. This one was about young Ojibwe girls and prostitution. We get a lot of information about the history and culture of the Ojibwe Indians and why these girls would turn to prostitution. Krueger's excellent writing makes for a realistic story and a hard to put down book. I look forward to the next book and I would highly recommend this series to those who like mystery in the wilderness and Indian history.
This was another excellent read from William Kent Krueger. I have read all his books before this one and he does not disappoint. His books are always riveting and keeps you on the edge of your seat. This one was about young Ojibwe girls and prostitution. We get a lot of information about the history and culture of the Ojibwe Indians and why these girls would turn to prostitution. Krueger's excellent writing makes for a realistic story and a hard to put down book. I look forward to the next book and I would highly recommend this series to those who like mystery in the wilderness and Indian history.
