Blood Hollow (Cork O’Connor Number Four), William Kent Krueger. Atria Paperback (ISBN: 9781439157794), 2009.

Summary: A murder is pinned on Solemn Winter Moon, but Cork thinks otherwise, confronting resistance and wounds from the past.

Fletcher Kane’s daughter Charlotte is missing after taking off on a snowmobile during a New Year’s Eve party. Aurora turns out to search but no trace. Cork persists as a blizzard approaches. Crossing a lake, he falls off his snowmobile and can’t find it. Then a wraith-like something guides him and he finds the snowmobile and makes it to shore.

Four months later, some hikers come across her body. Evidence at the scene, including a beer bottle and a wrench used to murder the girl, connects back to Solemn Winter Moon, nephew of Sam, whose hamburger place Cork and his daughters run since Sam’s tragic death. Chillingly, the murderer ate and drank while waiting for Charlotte to die. Sheriff Arne Soderberg, a political climber, is shaken to confront such a murder, but he is sure Moon has done it. But Moon is nowhere to be found. Cork finds him at Sam’s cabin hideaway and he and Jo persuade him to turn himself in. But when the sheriff ambushes him with the evidence, he bolts.

None of this looks good for Moon, who has been in and out of trouble since his youth. It turns out he fled to Henry Meloux, a sage who has guided Cork many times. Solemn returns from a vision quest as Cork goes to Henry and tells a strange story. He saw and talked to Jesus, dressed in north woods gear. Understandably, Cork has no idea what to think. But something has transformed Solemn. He is ready to face arrest and whatever follows.

But he is not the only one who faces a hard road. Solemn asks Jo to represent him. In turn, she needs a good investigator, and who better than Cork. But Cork faces challenges from his past. Fletcher Kane, Charlotte’s father is one. Fletcher’s father committed suicide when Cork’s father investigated sexual irregularities with one of his patients. And Charlotte’s school counselor intimates that Charlotte showed signs of sexual abuse by a family member. No love lost there. And then Arne Soderberg isn’t happy with the former sheriff investigating his case.

Solemn, who had broken up with Charlotte disavows the murder, or the sex that had preceded it. Slowly, evidence accumulates to point to someone else in this tight knit community, someone people would never think capable of murder. Cork must suspect people who are friends…or not, like someone wearing the badge.

Cork revisits two decisions in his life. When turned out of office after Sam Moon’s death, he made his peace with running Sam’s business with Jen and Anne. But the search for Charlotte’s murderer calls out all in which Cork excels as a lawman. And Solemn’s claims to have talked to Jesus and subsequent events challenge him to reconsider the faith he had turned from. Can he believe again?

In addition to Charlotte’s death, which has more twists than I can reveal here, Krueger develops the slowly healing relationship between Cork and Jo and the evolving relationship he has with two teenage daughters and his son. His connection with Henry Meloux is a high point in every story. And there is a subplot with Rose, pointing to the development her character. This makes me want to read further, not only for thrilling mysteries but also growing characters and evolving relationships.