Lightning Strike

Cork O'Connor Mysteries, Book 18

By: William Kent Krueger

Narrated by: David Chandler

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

The author of the instant New York Times best seller This Tender Land returns with a powerful prequel to his acclaimed Cork O’Connor series - a book about fathers and sons, long-simmering conflicts in a small Minnesota town, and the events that echo through youth and shape our lives forever.

Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota’s Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to 12-year-old Cork O’Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from a tree in an abandoned logging camp, it is the first in a series of events that will cause him to question everything he took for granted about his hometown, his family, and himself.

Cork’s father, Liam O’Connor, is Aurora’s sheriff, and it is his job to confirm that the man’s death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his father’s official investigation, Cork begins to look for answers on his own. Together, father and son face the ultimate test of choosing between what their heads tell them is true and what their hearts know is right.

In this masterful story of a young man and a town on the cusp of change, beloved novelist William Kent Krueger shows that some mysteries can be solved even as others surpass our understanding.

©2021 William Kent Krueger (P)2021 Recorded Books Inc.

Great Read

I love this story. There are so many aspects to touch on...the incredibly relatable characters and the feeling of childhood nostalgia while reading about their endeavors, the historical references to America’s dark past of boarding schools and the relocation act and how that affected the Ojibwa, the intense plot twists that are guaranteed to keep readers intrigued until the very end. I plan to use this novel in a high school class I teach.

Great prequel

I have read a lot of this series. The performance is a well known to me as the characters. I would receive men’s this book to anyone

Loved it!

It was a slow start, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it

Coming Of Age for Cork O'Connor

Loved meeting Cork's parents in such detail. Loved meeting a younger Henry as well. This offering and the last, Thunder Bay were worth while listens.

Good story

I very much enjoyed this story. It's a great detective story and the added values and experience of the native Indian community provided an enriched context. At no time were events predictable. I also enjoyed the characters themselves. I look forward to other books from this author.

This book is not a 5 star for me. To get 5 stars a book must be riveting and leave me thinking about the events and/or characters long after it is finished. This was just a really good story.,

Great Author

Lightning Strike is an interesting story and another great book in the Cork O'Connor series!

Great pre-sequel

I enjoyed this book as much as any of the other books written by William Kent Krueger. As usual he does a great job at developing believable characters that make you feel you are visiting them as you read the book. He does not shy away from the distrust that occurs between to different races. I don’t want to write more a give away the suspense of a great listen or read!

I lived every moment of the story.

it was a very real story. I laughed, I cried, I held my breath with tension. good good story

great, great book!

Loved every minute of it! Absolutely mesmerizing - explained so much about Cork's early life!

Another Wonderful Novel!

He did it again. This, too, is a terrific novel, part of the mystery series. It begins with Cork as a 13 year old, however and gives us the backstory about his childhood and father. The characters are well developed, the plot excellent. it's not formulaic. I loved it.