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Iron Lake  By  cover art

Iron Lake

By: William Kent Krueger
Narrated by: David Chandler
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Publisher's summary

Anthony Award-winning author William Kent Krueger crafts this riveting tale about a small Minnesota town’s ex-sheriff who is having trouble retiring his badge. Cork O’Connor loses his job after being blamed for a tragedy on the local Anishinaabe Indian reservation. But he must set aside his personal demons when a young boy goes missing on the same day a judge commits suicide—and no one but O’Connor suspects foul play.

Solve another case with Cork O'Connor.
©1998 William Kent Krueger (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Krueger makes Cork a real person beneath his genre garments, mostly by showing him dealing with the needs of his two very different teenage daughters. And the author's deft eye for the details of everyday life brings the town and its peculiar problems to vivid life." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Iron Lake

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wasn’t so sure after reading Lightening Strike

After reading Lightning Strike and loving it, I found order of Cork O’Connors story. Iron Lake was first. Took me a minute but I loved it!!! On to the next one!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great all the way through!

Really enjoyable! Great plot and characters. Always like a story narrated by David Chandler. I’ve just started this series after a friend recommended and plan to continue based on this one, Thank you.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Audible now requires text reviews

If you want to leave a star review, audible now requires a text review. I don't know about you but I leave star reviews to remind myself which authors and narrators I do and don't like. I don't like being required to leave a text review if I want to make a start review. I hope audible fixes this soon.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Great Narration

Northern Minnesota murder mystery. Lots of richly developed characters. Not my favorite William Kent Krueger novel, but it was well written, and the guilty party wasn't blatantly obvious.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A nice series

Better than average, this series is interesting with compelling characters. Not really a fan of Jo yet, but hoping she grows on me.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I really love this book

This is the first in a series of many books with this character. I thought I would give it a try, because I love to find a good series that I can just keep reading one after another, but it doesn’t always work out. This time, however, it did! I will definitely keep reading, the rest of these books

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Old school murder mystery

This book was released in 1991. So no cell phones, and it’s all about who is cheating on who with them being terrible parents. But that being said, I didn’t mind the narrator, who sounds like your grandpa reading to you in the living room, and the story was interesting. Good thing it was free on my audible plus.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Riveting Mystery

My husband and I listened to this on our way to New Orleans to visit our daughter and her family. Couldn't stop listening . . . listened to it in bed after we got there . . . listened to it on our little side trips . . . finally finished it in bed the second day we were there . . . this is a book for both men and women . . . and it will keep you guessing . . . I love the historical aspect of the Indian customs and superstitions . . . Cork the ex-sheriff is a normal guy, with an arrow straight moral compass . . . I like that about him . . . and what he uncovers will blow your mind . . . thought I had it figured out, then I didn't . . .

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52 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Who came first - Wm Krueger or CJ Box ???

I'm a HUGE CJ Box fan. As I listened to this narrator - David Chandler (also the voice of Box's Joe Pickett) I had to keep reminding myself this was Cork nor Joe. Cork and Joe are brothers from different mothers.

Finding Krueger and his large collection of Cork novels I feel like I've found long lost CJ Box stories. Both involve rural outdoors and a straight arrow hero with a family. Just enough differences in the two (Joe and Cork) to make all the books interesting.

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51 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Is this gonna be a good series, or what?

This was a surprisingly good book. I think I picked it up in a 3 for 2 credit sale because I am always looking for a new series in this genre. I think I may have found one. Krueger not only tells a good story, he creates and develops interesting characters that should be interesting to follow. Moreover, this is not a "they lived happily thereafter book". I get the feeling nobody, the main character not withstanding, is safe in Krueger's plots. I suppose time will tell if this theme continues as I go through the 13 available books.

From a more critical point of view, Krueger's plot in Iron Lake might have been a bit over extended. There were a lot of characters and sub-plots that didn't add much, if anything, to the story. Are some of them going to play roles in later books? I don't know. But, I'd like to give the author a little slack in the first book in his series and move on to the next one. In my experience, the good authors usually get better with experience (probably because they get better editors who polish the work). I hope that will be the case in later Cork O'Connor stories.

The narrator, David Chandler, did a great job. I almost did notice he was there and I could usually identify the character by the sound of his voice.

In any event, I will purchase the next book in the series right after I submit this review. I suppose that best expresses my feelings toward this one.

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15 people found this helpful