Young William Kent Krueger at the age of seventeen.
Career
Gallery of William Krueger
2019
William Kent Krueger at his book-signing.
Gallery of William Krueger
2019
William Kent Krueger with his wife Diane.
Gallery of William Krueger
2019
William Kent Krueger with his wife Diane.
Gallery of William Krueger
2019
William Kent Krueger at the gala celebration that Book of the Month Club held to announce their Book of the Year.
Gallery of William Krueger
2019
1514 Englewood Ave #1299, St Paul, MN 55104, United States
William Kent Krueger with her wife Diane volunteering at the Hamline Church dining hall, which has been serving home-cooked meals to fairgoers for more than 120 years.
Gallery of William Krueger
2019
William Kent Krueger with his grandson in the United Kingdom.
1514 Englewood Ave #1299, St Paul, MN 55104, United States
William Kent Krueger with her wife Diane volunteering at the Hamline Church dining hall, which has been serving home-cooked meals to fairgoers for more than 120 years.
(Part Irish, part Anishinaabe Indian, Cork is having diffi...)
Part Irish, part Anishinaabe Indian, Cork is having difficulty dealing with the marital meltdown that has separated him from his children, getting by on heavy doses of caffeine, nicotine, and guilt. Once a cop on Chicago’s South Side, there’s not much that can shock him. But when the town’s judge is brutally murdered, and a young Eagle Scout is reported missing, Cork takes on this complicated and perplexing case of conspiracy, corruption, and a small-town secret that hits painfully close to home.
(When President Clay Dixon's father-in-law - a former vice...)
When President Clay Dixon's father-in-law - a former vice president - is injured in a farming accident, First Lady Kate Dixon returns to Minnesota to be at his side. Assigned to protect her, Secret Service agent Bo Thorsen soon falls under Kate's spell.
(Tough-as-nails former small-town sheriff Cork O'Connor is...)
Tough-as-nails former small-town sheriff Cork O'Connor is forced into the center of an eerie mystery with a shocking twist in this "vivid and realistic" (Booklist) Anthony Award-winning novel from critically acclaimed author William Kent Krueger.
(A stunning new suspense novel in William Kent Krueger's p...)
A stunning new suspense novel in William Kent Krueger's prize-winning Corcoran O'Connor series finds the charismatic detective steeped in his most dangerous case to date. Back on the beat as sheriff of Tamarack County, Cork O'Connor has already seen his beautiful Northwoods jurisdiction through an eventful summer.
(The newest book in William Kent Krueger's award-winning C...)
The newest book in William Kent Krueger's award-winning Corcoran O'Connor series finds the charismatic private investigator caught in the middle of a racial gang war that's turning picturesque Tamarack County, Minnesota, into a bloody battlefield.
(The sixth novel in William Kent Krueger's award-winning s...)
The sixth novel in William Kent Krueger's award-winning suspense series finds Cork O'Connor running for his life - straight into a murderous conspiracy involving teenage runaways. In well-crafted settings that are beautiful and unforgiving, with unforgettable characters and jaw-dropping surprises,
(Intrepid hero Cork O’Connor faces the most harrowing miss...)
Intrepid hero Cork O’Connor faces the most harrowing mission of his life when a charter plane carrying his wife, Jo, goes missing in a snowstorm over the Wyoming Rockies. Months after the tragedy, two women show up on Cork’s doorstep with evidence that the pilot of Jo’s plane was not the man he claimed to be.
(Vermilion Drift is a powerful novel, filled with all the ...)
Vermilion Drift is a powerful novel, filled with all the mystery and suspense for which Krueger has won so many awards. A poignant portrayal of the complexities of family life, it’s also a sobering reminder that even those closest to our hearts can house the darkest - and deadliest - of secrets.
(With his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of br...)
With his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, detective Cork O’Connor must solve the murder of a young girl in the latest installment of William Kent Krueger’s unforgettable New York Times bestselling series.
(The next novel in William Kent Krueger’s New York Times b...)
The next novel in William Kent Krueger’s New York Times bestselling series finds Cork O’Connor sitting in the shadow of a towering monolith known as Trickster’s Point, deep in the Minnesota wilderness. Full of nail-biting suspense, plus a fascinating look into Cork’s teenage years in Aurora, a town blessed with natural beauty yet plagued by small-town feuds and heated racial tension, Trickster’s Point is a thrilling exploration of the motives, both good and ill, that lead men and women into the difficult, sometimes deadly, political arena.
(A collection of excerpts from the Cork O’Connor novels, i...)
A collection of excerpts from the Cork O’Connor novels, including: Iron Lake, Boundary Waters, Purgatory Ridge, Blood Hollow, Mercy Falls, Copper River, Thunder Bay, Red Knife, Heaven’s Keep, Vermilion Drift, Northwest Angle, Trickster’s Point
(Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy s...)
Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.
(During a blizzard one bitter winter night, just days befo...)
During a blizzard one bitter winter night, just days before Christmas, the car belonging to the wife of a retired local judge is discovered abandoned on a rural county road in Tamarack County. After days of fruitless searching, there is little hope that she’ll be found alive, if she’s found at all. Cork O’Connor, the ex-sheriff of Tamarack County, notices small things about the woman’s disappearance that disturb him. When the beloved pet dog of a friend is brutally killed and beheaded, he begins to see a startling pattern in these and other recent dark occurrences in the area.
(Cork O’Connor battles vicious villains, both mythical and...)
Cork O’Connor battles vicious villains, both mythical and modern, to rescue a young girl in the latest nail-biting mystery from New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger. 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.
(In the extraordinary new Cork O’Connor thriller from New ...)
In the extraordinary new Cork O’Connor thriller from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author William Kent Krueger, the lives of hundreds of innocent people are at stake when Cork vanishes just days before his daughter’s wedding. Since the violent deaths of his wife, father, and best friend all occurred in previous Novembers, Cork O’Connor has always considered it to be the cruelest of months.
(As the author of over fifteen spellbinding novels in the ...)
As the author of over fifteen spellbinding novels in the Cork O’Connor mystery series, William Kent Krueger has introduced countless readers to a harsh but magnificent Minnesota landscape and a cast of remarkable characters who call it home. This is the world of Cork O’Connor. Now in this helpful reader’s companion, readers can gain new insight into how the series has evolved book after book, how Cork O’Connor came to exist as a character, and how Minnesota’s great Northwoods proved to be as important to the books as any human character Krueger created.
(New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger sh...)
New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger showcases his talent “creating strong characters, building drama and conflict, braiding in Indian legend and spirituality, and spinning a good yarn” (Minneapolis Star Tribune) in this a vivid and pulse-pounding thriller that follows Cork O’Connor’s search for a missing man amid the fraught tensions at the border between Arizona and Mexico.
(Award-winning author William Kent Krueger delivers anothe...)
Award-winning author William Kent Krueger delivers another heart-pounding thriller filled with “dynamic action scenes” (The New York Times) as Cork O’Connor and his son Stephen work together to uncover the truth behind the death of a senator on Desolation Mountain and the mysterious disappearances of several first responders.
(This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic tha...)
This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.
William Kent Krueger is an American novelist and crime writer. He is best known for his series of novels featuring Cork O'Connor.
Background
William Kent Krueger was born on November 16, 1950, in Torrington, Wyoming, United States. His family moved around the United States a good deal in his early years. He'd lived in eight different communities in six different states by the time he graduated from high school. However, he tends to call Oregon his home. His mother was a musician and actress. Stories were always read to him, books were always around the house. Reading was endlessly encouraged and as a result, he grew up thinking of the world in terms of stories.
Education
Krueger said, that he had always wanted to be a writer. He wrote his first short story in the third grade, a story called The Walking Dictionary which was influenced, by the fact that his father taught high school English. William Krueger studied at Hood River High School. He attended Stanford University for one year before his participation in protests during the Vietnam War resulted in the loss of his scholarships. He spent two more years in college in Colorado, before finally dropping out altogether.
William Kent Krueger is a Minnesota short story and novel writer whose books are set in the north woods of that state. Iron Lake, the first book of his mystery series featuring Cork O’Connor, is named for one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes and the Indian reservation surrounding it. A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that Krueger “has a sense of place he’s plainly honed firsthand in a below-zero prairie. His characters, too, sports charm and dimension.” Part Irish, part Anishinaabe/Ojibwe Cork O’Connor is a Chicago policeman who returns to his hometown of Aurora with his lawyer wife, Jo, and their three children and becomes sheriff. He loses an election after a dispute between local Native Americans and whites over fishing rights and turns to running a small restaurant and gift shop. After their marriage fails, Jo becomes an advocate for tribal rights. The story opens with Cork having a relationship with a waitress but hoping to get back together with Jo. whose lover is a senator and the son of a former judge who has committed suicide. At the same time, a Native American newsboy disappears, and when Cork attempts to find him, he finds enemies in the senator, the new sheriff, and tribal leaders profiting from gambling concessions. An elderly medicine man tells Cork that a Windigo, or “ogre with a heart of ice" is behind these events, and Cork explores the connection between the spirit and the actual criminal. Booklist contributor John Rowen wrote that “this is a mystery as an allegory - the Windigo is alive and well in America, in stalkers, stupid spouses, and ruthless politicians.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer said that Krueger “makes Cork a real person beneath his genre garments. And the author’s deft eye for the details of everyday life brings the town and its peculiar problems to vivid life.” A Library Journal contributor wrote that Iron Lake is “filled with Native American legend and lore and edge-of-your-seat plot twists.”
Boundary Waters is set in the Quetico-Superior Wilder-ness, two million acres of forest, white-water rapids, and islands on the American-Canadian border. Cork explores the vast expanse in search of Shiloh, a musician who witnessed the murder of her mother, then disappeared. She is the daughter of Cork’s friend, Aurora native, and country singer William Raye. Before Cork can set out. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and a Las Vegas gangster arrive, all of whom want to find Shiloh, but no one will disclose why. They all go together - Cork, William, the newcomers, and an Anishinaabe father and son - on an adventure that provides insight as to the horrors Shiloh is facing. A Publishers Weekly reviewer said that “Krueger’s writing, strong and bold yet with the mature mark of restraint, pull this exciting search-and-rescue mission through with a hard yank.” “Cork remains a spritely, intriguing hero in a world of wolves, portages, heavy weather, and worrisome humans,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
In an interview with Lynn Kaczmarek for Mystery News online, Krueger admitted that he invented the setting for his third novel, Purgatory Ridge. “It’s based on real rock formations that exist,” Krueger told her. “I named two... and then I added a third that fit my needs. I tamper with geography.” Kaczmarek wrote, “It’s fiction, after all. It’s magic,” and added that “there is something magic about Kent Krueger’s writing, something that wraps around the stories and the people and the place.”
As the story opens, an explosion at Karl Lindstrom’s lumber mill kills Charlie Warren, an Ojibwe elder. Karl is planning to cut down Our Grandfathers, a 300-year-old grove of sacred pines, a move opposed by Native Americans and conservationists. Responsibility for the bombing is claimed by someone calling himself the Eco-Warrior, soldier of the Army of the Earth. Cork and Jo have reunited, and she works to defend Native Americans who are suspected of having a part in the act. The number of suspects grows to include Brent Hamilton, whose mother was crippled in a similar bombing; publisher Helm Hanover, who was responsible for Cork losing his sheriff’s job and is suspected of leading a secret militant group; and John LePere, the only survivor when the freighter Alfred M. Teasdale sank on Lake Superior six years earlier - an accident that claimed his brother, whose body has never been recovered. Larry Gandle, writing for the Mysteries Web site, noted that John’s “private agony” provides the second storyline and added that Krueger “ties the two storylines together into one of the most compelling and well-written thrillers of the year. Characterization is an exceptional strength of this work.” After kidnapping Cork’s wife and son and Lindstrom’s wife, Grace Fitzgerald, a novelist and the daughter of the owner of the freighter, demands a $2 million dollar ransom for their return. A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that Krueger “prolongs suspense to the very end.” Booklist contributor said that Krueger, who is a former logger, “understands... the complexities of the struggle between environmentalists and developers.” Harriet Klausner, writing for BookBrowser online, found Purgatory Ridge “an exciting ecological thriller that keeps the suspense and action at high levels throughout the late. When the story concentrates on the central theme of conservation vs. development, the plot is as good as it gets.”
William Kent Krueger's work has received a number of awards, including the Minnesota Book Award, the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, the Dilys Award, and the Friends of American Writers Prize. His last nine novels were all New York Times bestsellers.
Ordinary Grace, his stand-alone novel published in 2013, received the Edgar Award, given by the Mystery Writers of America in recognition for the best novel published in that year. The companion novel, This Tender Land, was published in September 2019.
William Kent Krueger was on the cover of Mystery Scene magazine in 2019.
William Krueger attends the United Methodist Church.
Politics
In 1970 William Kent Krueger took part in demonstrations against the Vietnam War.
Views
Quotations:
"Success seems to me the least real of all accomplishments. I'm not even sure what the measure of success is. I suppose it never hurts to be able to put on a book cover that the author or the book is an award winner. However, I think very few readers would make a book-buying decision based primarily on that. I believe what's more important, in terms of success within the business (that is, sales), is to continue to write good books and to have a publisher who is behind you one hundred percent. In terms of my own sense of success, I simply try to write the best book I can, and to attempt something slightly different-to grow as an artist-with each work."
"The only advice I have that might be useful is simply this: Write what pleases you and never give up."
"The spiritual life is a significant concern for me - what it is, what impact it has on our lives, how to stay in touch with it. When I created the character of Cork O’Connor, I made him a man who’d turned his back on God, and who believes that God has turned his back as well. I liked that because I think we’re all struggling with spiritual questions and often feel abandoned and alone. Cork is Catholic, a religious tradition with a complicated history and a lot of ritual. He is also part Ojibwe, a culture with a rich spiritual tradition tied very much to nature. Put these elements together and you have a wonderful complexity of character and theme to deal with, rich territory to mine as an author."
"History was a study in futility. Because people never learned. Century after century, they committed the same atrocities against one another or against the earth, and the only thing that changed was the magnitude of the slaughter... Conscience was a devil that plagued the individual. Collectively, a people squashed it as easily as stepping on a daisy."
"Life owes me nothing, no matter how hard I work. Whatever good comes to me, in the end, is simply a gift and a blessing."
Personality
During the time he was enrolled in college, his major interest was anthropology.
His favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. He thinks, that Ernest Hemingway is one of his greatest literary influences.
The greatest fear for him is physical pain: "Under threat of torture, I'd fold like a card castle."
He said would like to play a musical instrument and to have an ability to dance like Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly.
His greatest achievement is raising a family.
When he was asked, what was his greatest flaw, he answered: "The inability to say no when asked for a favor." And when he was asked, what was his best quality, he answered: the inability to say no when asked for a favor."
His favorite fictional hero is Gus McCrae, the wonderfully flawed and philosophic former Texas Ranger in Larry McMurtry's fine epic Lonesome Dove.
He said, that three personal qualities, which most important to him are compassion, honesty, and humor.
His favorite food is pizza.
Krueger's five favorite songs are "Somewhere over the Rainbow", "Stardust", "Summertime", "Imagine", "American Pie".
His favorite fictional villain is Professor Moriarity.
Interests
travelling, charity
Politicians
Muhammad Yunus, Abraham Lincoln
Writers
Ernest Hemingway, Tony Hillerman, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James T. Farrel, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, D.H. Lawrence. Toni Morrison, Russell Banks, Saul Bellow
Sport & Clubs
biking
Connections
William Kent Krueger is married to Diane Krueger. The couple has two children.
