Barbara M. reviewed on 4/3/2019 + 152 more book reviews

I bought this book for $.25 from the local library's cart of withdrawn books. I know I've read at least one of Krueger's previous books although it was a few years back and I don't recall the title. I've lived all my life (in my 60s now) in MN (Krueger is a Minnesotan) and grew up on the Iron Range (Hibbing) where this story takes place. First, I was a little befuddled as to why the author would use a real town (Aurora) but say it's in a fictional county (Tamarack). Aurora is in St. Louis County, the largest county (geographically) in MN. There is no Tamarack County in MN.

I suspect the idea for this story is based on the crash of U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone's plane on 10/25/2002. Wellstone was one of MN's U.S. Senators and was flying to Eveleth (along with his wife, daugther, two pilots, and three campaign staffers) to a funeral. The plane crashed about two miles from Eveleth. At one point the FBI was involved in investigating the crash as Wellstone had received death threats. Ultimately, the crash was determined to be accidental.

I read this book in about three days so it's a quick read. I really disliked Stephen, Cork's son. He continually ignored his father's directives, which often led to Stephen getting into dire situations--of course, if Stephen didn't regularly defy his father and go off on a tangent, the book would be considerably shorter. Initially, I had trouble remembering who all the characters were. The plot was a bit convoluted; the ending was OK. Not a bad book but not a great one, either.

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