She Treads Softly: Spirit Crossing

Monday, August 19, 2024

Spirit Crossing

Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger
8/20/24; 336 pages
Atria Books
Cork O'Connor Series #20

Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger is a recommended mystery/procedural and the 20th novel in the Cork O'Connor series.

A Minnesota Senator's teenage daughter is missing which is major news. At the same time Cork O'Connor teams up with the Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police to identify the native women in a shallow grave. O'Connor's grandson found her when her spirit spoke to him. His son and and fiancée are involved with protesting the pipeline coming through the area. His daughter comes home with her girlfriend and some big news.

The writing is a bit choppy and some of the transitions are rough although the pace is fast. As the 20th book in the series, this novel is probably best read by those following the series since there appeared to be many reoccurring characters. It also requires you to believe a 7 year-old can have conversations with the dead. I could not accept this premise which made the novel less enjoyable.

The sad truth is that there are many native women and girls who go missing every year. I'm not sure this novel is the way to tackle the problem as it simplifies it. It will also find more appeal with readers who appreciate a one-sided personal political/social agenda deeply woven throughout the plot. Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.