Heaven's Keep: A Cork O'Connor Mystery

Wow! This listening experience grabs you fast and holds you hard! The whole Cork O'Connor series is great to read or listen to, but this one is particularly suspenseful and heartbreaking.
Just be careful if you're driving. You'll want to make the trip longer and longer because you just can't bear to stop yet!

This entry into Kueger's Cork O'Conner series brings us a sad event: the death of O'Conner's wife. Still, Cork and his family manage to bear up under the tragedy; and the loss of his wife motivates Cork to solve the mystery of her death, along with the deaths of several other people. I like to think of William Kent Krueger as the Tony Hillerman of the Ojibwey. He seems to know the North Country tribes well -- to the extent that he can create credible Native American characters. And, like Hillerman, he describes the landscapes of his novels beautifully and poetically. I would recommend all of Krueger's novels to anybody who enjoys mysteries set outdoors. While it may seem like a given that authors must make us like their heros, in fact they don't always succeed. Especially the tough-guy heros sometimes seem too angry and violent for my taste; but Krueger makes us like and admire his tough hero, Cork O'Connor. We can't help wanting the best for him, and wanting for him to succeed, just as if Cork were a friend. To me, that facility signifies a good writer.

I would have given this a higher rating--good character development, interesting and different storyline, but unexpected and repeated religious themes and lessons are annoying when you are not interested in them. I think that audible books with a religious theme should have to indicate this somewhere. That said, the narrator was quite excellent.

The narration was OK, The story has it's good moments, and it's very well written. It's not a book I would read twice or talk about

This was my first Cork O'Connor mystery so I don't know how it is compared to the others, but to anyone who loves a good mystery, this is a good book to check out. It wasn't at all predicable which is of major importance, at least to me, so it succeeded at making me want to finish so I would know how it all ended. Still not the best book I've ever read but it was really well written and worth checking out for the good deal I got on it. The narration was great! Since the book is revolved so much around Indians, Schirner's accent really added to the whole story. It didn't feel so much like someone just reading you a book but more like you were actually listening in on real conversations.

I loved the interaction between Cork and his son Stephen

Stephen was my favorite character because you get to follow him as he develops from an awkward pre-teen to a sensitive, dedicated teenage son and brother.

This book kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat all the way through to the end of the book. There were unusual twists that were handled nicely.

I have read (and listened to) several Corcoran O'Conner books. I have not been disappointed yet and I thoroughly enjoy the informative look into reservation life and Ojibwa traditions and heritage.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting - a thriller or a fantasy - it really wasn't either.

No. Once is ok, I'm not slow witted regardless what my wife says;-)

The digging up of the plane!

He voiced the characters ok.

Maybe Palmer or cork. Strong characters.

My problem is not with WKK here unless he was involved with the recording production. I have listened to all but 3 of WKK's books now. The ones on here, at least. I love all of them. I even like all the readers and I don't even think my complaint is with Buck Schirner here. He does a great job...but I also liked all the Craig Johnson series of Walt Longmire novels and I am VERY accustomed to George (Gold Standard Narrator) Guidall talking about Ab sir ROH ka County and in this book there must have been 200 instances of Ab sarra kuh mountains. Even if there is a chance this version was right I did all the other Longmire books first. It was worse than a movie with a bunch of "Call 555 3495"s in it. If this is my only complaint then it means I am very happy with it and when a picky person is happy you should have no hesitation about buying. I am sad that I only have 3 more WKK books before I have to put him on my list of "Waiting for him to write another book" authors.
Jo was a good character but I understand why she had to be retired.