Thunder Bay (Cork O’Connor Number 7), William Kent Krueger. Atria Books (ISBN: 9781439157824) 2009

Summary: A search for Henry Meloux’s son leads to an attempt on Meloux’s life and a love story from the 1920’s.

This is a novel where Cork O’Connor learns things about people close to him that he had not known before. For one, that his studious, college-bound daughter, Jenny, is pregnant. And he learns that his wise advisor, Henry Meloux, has a son.

The latter revelation comes to light when Henry suddenly is afflicted with a heart condition, threatening his life. But the doctors can’t find a problem. When he tells Cork about his son and wanting to find him and Cork agrees to search, he suddenly gets better. Cork tracks him down to Thunder Bay, Canada, and tries to see him, using a watch with a picture of his son’s mother Henry gave him, as an entree.

There’s a problem. Henry’s son is a hermit, living on an island. But Cork makes a convincing case to be seen with his half-brother who had taken over the profitable mining business Henry’s son had formerly presided over. He gets the meeting, but not without a dustup with Hank’s bodyguard, Morrissey. And Henry’s son does not want to see his father.

Cork returns and assumes its all over and turns to deal with Jenny’s situation together with Jo. Until, that is, someone makes an attempt on Henry’s life, which costs the assailant his life. The assailant was Morrissey.

Why would someone try to kill Henry for wanting to see his long lost son? Cork, although no longer sheriff, wants to understand. He assumes Henry is still in danger. So Henry tells him the story, one that runs for 85 pages of the novel. As a young man, Henry had agreed to serve as a guide for a couple of prospectors, one of whom brought along his beautiful daughter. They fall in love beside a scenic lake in the north woods in Canada. They meet a Black man, Maurice, living in the woods who they befriend. He has a huge stash of gold, what the prospectors were seeking.

Sadly, the love affair between Henry and the girl is discovered. In a confrontation with her father, the father is fatally hurt. Things end badly, with Henry wounded and Maurice dead. Somehow, Henry survives and walks out of the wilderness, discovering his calling as a spiritual guide. The girl, Maria is pregnant, and marries the surviving prospector, Wellington, naming her son Henry. She dies a few years later and Wellington remarries and has another son, the half-brother running the company.

Despite the threat on his life, Henry wants to go to his son. Cork agrees and they take retired sheriff, Wally Schanno with them as backup. They discover the “hermit” is a front and locate where the real Henry is living. But murder pursues as well. Why the attempt to kill an old man? And will Henry see his son?

Obviously, the big feature of this novel is the development of the Meloux character, with an explanation of how he became a mide. And we also learn how Stevie gets a dog and what happens to Jenny. In it all, Krueger portrays the bittersweetness of life — of love and wonder and violence and loss — and that we must hold onto the former to sustain us when facing the latter.