This review refers to the audio version.
#5 Cork O'Connor mystery set in northern Minnesota (and partially in Chicago in this book.) Cork, sheriff of Tamarack County, has two investigations to divide his time between. First, a sniper shoots one of his deputies--and the bullet was most likely meant for him. Although Marcia Dodds will recover, Cork feels a certain amount of guilt and wants to find out the reason for the attempted hit and who's responsible. But he also has to investigate the brutal death of Eddie Jacoby, a man from Chicago who is in town on business.
It turns out that Eddie is the half-brother of Ben Jacoby, an old flame of Jo's (Cork's wife) from college, part of a rich and powerful family who even fly in a 'security expert' to help. The threats against Cork continue, so he sends Jo and the kids to her sister Rose's in Chicago. Through a long and twisty tale, Cork, his team, Dina Willner (the security expert) chase clues and false trails in an attempt to find the bad guy.
It has been several years since I read the previous book in this series. I've tried hard to like it because the author is local and I used to live in the area the books take place in. The books have interesting stories and I do love the local flavor. Cork and his secondary characters are likable and interesting. And yet some niggling thing about these books always annoys the heck out of me. I still can't figure out what exactly bugs me, but it wasn't any different this time--even listening to the book in audio instead of reading in print didn't change things.
Part of it is the relationship between Cork and Jo, his wife. Something is just "off" there. Also, the plots seem kind of contrived. In this book--as with previous books in the series--the bad guy was very obvious to me from the time they entered the picture. A whole slew of red herrings didn't change my mind about that and I kept wanting to slap Cork upside the head for missing big clues. The plot seemed really stretched with way too many coincidences popping up.
And I absolutely HATE it when an author doesn't wrap up the story in the book at hand. Yes, there has to be some continuity from one book to the next, perhaps leaving questions about what happens to some aspect of the main character's personal life--but to totally omit a resolution to the crimes committed during the book, even if the 'answer' was known to a couple of people is just deplorable, IMO. Here's the deal: this cliffhanger, more than wanting me to go out and read the next book, makes me realize that I don't really care one way or another what happens. And whatever the mysterious "it" is that bugs me about this series, I'm going to listen to it and just stop right here. C-
#5 Cork O'Connor mystery set in northern Minnesota (and partially in Chicago in this book.) Cork, sheriff of Tamarack County, has two investigations to divide his time between. First, a sniper shoots one of his deputies--and the bullet was most likely meant for him. Although Marcia Dodds will recover, Cork feels a certain amount of guilt and wants to find out the reason for the attempted hit and who's responsible. But he also has to investigate the brutal death of Eddie Jacoby, a man from Chicago who is in town on business.
It turns out that Eddie is the half-brother of Ben Jacoby, an old flame of Jo's (Cork's wife) from college, part of a rich and powerful family who even fly in a 'security expert' to help. The threats against Cork continue, so he sends Jo and the kids to her sister Rose's in Chicago. Through a long and twisty tale, Cork, his team, Dina Willner (the security expert) chase clues and false trails in an attempt to find the bad guy.
It has been several years since I read the previous book in this series. I've tried hard to like it because the author is local and I used to live in the area the books take place in. The books have interesting stories and I do love the local flavor. Cork and his secondary characters are likable and interesting. And yet some niggling thing about these books always annoys the heck out of me. I still can't figure out what exactly bugs me, but it wasn't any different this time--even listening to the book in audio instead of reading in print didn't change things.
Part of it is the relationship between Cork and Jo, his wife. Something is just "off" there. Also, the plots seem kind of contrived. In this book--as with previous books in the series--the bad guy was very obvious to me from the time they entered the picture. A whole slew of red herrings didn't change my mind about that and I kept wanting to slap Cork upside the head for missing big clues. The plot seemed really stretched with way too many coincidences popping up.
And I absolutely HATE it when an author doesn't wrap up the story in the book at hand. Yes, there has to be some continuity from one book to the next, perhaps leaving questions about what happens to some aspect of the main character's personal life--but to totally omit a resolution to the crimes committed during the book, even if the 'answer' was known to a couple of people is just deplorable, IMO. Here's the deal: this cliffhanger, more than wanting me to go out and read the next book, makes me realize that I don't really care one way or another what happens. And whatever the mysterious "it" is that bugs me about this series, I'm going to listen to it and just stop right here. C-
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