Author William Kent Krueger’s latest novel, the twenty-first entry in his Cork O’Connor series about that small-town sheriff and detective, is filled with fascinating, superbly drawn characters, but it’s certainly more than just a character study. It’s a complex and puzzling murder mystery featuring so many likely suspects that we readers are as stumped as O’Connor himself in trying to figure out not only who committed the murder, but where to even begin the investigation. The most confusing situation is that the murder he must solve happened twenty-five years before the present day.

Near the beginning of the novel, the now-retired O’Connor receives a very disturbing phone call from his adult son, who tells his dad that the man who was accused and convicted of the murder in question was almost surely innocent. And O’Connor was the sheriff when the murder, a very gory affair, occurred. So if the convict was indeed innocent, the ex-sheriff would necessarily be burdened by the terrible revelation of the false conviction. He was, after all, in charge of the investigation.

The novel is divided into two time lines. One involves the murder itself — twenty-five years in the past — and the other the present-day investigation to determine if the convicted young man, who has spent the last twenty-five years in jail, was really the murderer. Both investigations, past and present, are, as we said, extremely complicated.

The primary suspect, Axel Boshey, is a full-blooded Native American who is married to Chastity Boshey, nee McGill, the murder victim. Chastity was White. Her mother, Aphrodite McGill, had called the sheriff’s office to exclaim, while in a state of total shock, that her daughter had been the victim of a horrendously bloody murder. When the sheriff’s department arrives at the murder scene, Aphrodite is sitting in a chair and holding a bloody knife.

Though she is unable to function sanely, she makes it quite clear that she knows that her daughter’s killer is Axel Boshey, Chastity’s husband. We eventually learn that Axel and Chastity had a terrible and violent relationship and that they had had a huge and vicious argument on the day of the murder. Chastity, it turns out, was a nasty, mean-spirited woman who made no effort to hide her disgust with her husband. Axel was usually a nice young man who had an unfortunate drinking problem, and when he was drunk, he talked about how much he hated his wife. As push came to shove, investigators found pieces of evidence which seemed to point clearly to Axel’s guilt: his blood on the knife; his bloody clothes hidden in a nearby shed; his obvious motive; and, finally, his confession to the crime.

Axel, in jail awaiting trial, claims to O’Connor that he (Axel) often blacks out completely when he is drunk, and he has no memory of what he has done while basically unconscious. So, he says, it is entirely possible that he killed his wife while raging over their many fights and how much he hates her. He has confessed. And he is convincingly convicted.

Twenty-five years later, O’Connor receives that terribly disturbing call from his son. And the ex-sheriff can’t help himself; he can’t help remembering his doubts about Axel’s guilt. Something seemed off, didn’t add up. How, for example, could a man in Axel’s state of mind have been so careful to place all the pieces of evidence so carefully, where, incidentally, there was no doubt that the police would find them. And what about Axel’s friends, who insist that drunk or sober, Axel is not the kind of person who would be capable of committing such a heinous crime.

So the new investigation begins. Incredibly, the same people who had been involved twenty-five years earlier are still possible suspects: the man with whom Chastity was having an affair right at the time of the murder; the woman who was having an affair with Axel at the same time; two men, both formerly members of law enforcement, both violent scoundrels who hate Native Americans in general and Axel in particular; and several more townspeople as well, most of whom also hate Native Americans — there is a tribal reservation right near the town itself. And, of course, the mother, Aphrodite herself, who had called in the murder to the sheriff’s office , but also was found at the scene with the bloody knife in her hand and who had not hidden her hatred of Axel.

Aphrodite is a wonder. What a superb creation by the author! She is crazy. She lives in and owns a mansion left her by her late architect husband, who was pretty crazy himself. She calls it Shangri-La. It is said that she has had sexual relations with “half the men in town.” She throws parties at Shangri-La that feature sex for all, every conceivable illegal drug, and alcohol for the assembled multitude. She is addicted to everything she shouldn’t experience or consume and totally lacks any self-control. She has none and wants none. Her favorite pastime is sex with anyone of any size, shape, age, or gender. And she is by far the most fascinating character in the novel, even though she is certainly not the protagonist.

There are (at least) two other significant features of the novel, both of which involve the lives and the world of Native Americans. One is their touching and very serious reliance on spiritual beliefs and practices to guide their lives. The characters often refer to their Creator and what they learn every day from that Being’s guidance and directions. Spirits truly move them, and the presence of those spirits is constant and believable. Furthermore, their sincerity is contrasted throughout the novel, though sometimes subtly, with the hypocrisy of the church-going White townspeople. The attitudinal difference is striking.

Finally, Krueger seems to be on a mission to present the very real mistreatment and general abuse that characterized and characterizes the treatment of Native Americans perpetrated by the White majority — the lack of justice and fairness, the violence, the White assumption of racial superiority, the casual cruelty, the bias and racism. And all of those injustices happened twenty-five years ago at the chronological beginning of this novel and, of course, way before that, since the takeover of the land by the invading European forces. And the meanness and hatred carry on and on, in small towns like Cork O’Connor’s and all over America. Needless to say, we White people have much to learn, and we seem not at all determined to learn anything at all about human decency.

Please read this novel to get the feeling. Krueger deserves congratulations and credit for offering us the opportunity to enjoy and learn. It’s a powerful presentation that you should not miss.

REVIEW BY JACK KRAMER

Please note: This review is based on the final, hardcover book provided by Atria Books, the publisher, for review purposes.