Cork O’Conner was once the sheriff of his small Minnesota town but left formal police work after having had to shoot a teenager who had gone on a killing rampage. Cork felt the town had let the young man down and if they had not then the killing spree would not have happened. Cork could no longer carry a gun so he could not work as a policeman.
Instead Cork runs a small fast food café at a dock on the lake surrounded by picturesque forest and nature. He serves the best burger in town down at his little Quonset hut restaurant. He is beginning to have a little bit of a problem with a big time developer who has bought up the land all around him and wants to put up condo’s right on the edge of the lake. Cork is determined not to give in and let modern development spoil the beauty of nature in his corner of the world. But Cork’s life and his priorities are turned upside down when his wife Jo takes off on a charter plane for a trip to Seattle to a meeting with leaders of the Indian tribes concerned with development of large gambling casinos. The plane disappears and Cork begins a long and emotionally painful search for Jo along with his teenage son Stephen.
Cork can’t just stand by and wait for the searchers to find something so he goes off to Wyoming to the rugged Rocky Mountains to take some action on his own. The search goes on for months and Cork does everything he can joining in on the search until big snow storms make further searching impossible. There is no chance that Jo or any of the other tribal leaders that were on that plane are still alive. They finally have to give up.
But then Cork is visited by the wife of the Indian pilot who had been labeled as drunk at the time the plane left. At first Cork is angry and wants nothing to do with her but when Cork views a video of the night before the flight at the bar where this pilot was supposedly getting stinking drunk he becomes convinced that the man is not really drinking and that the man is not the husband pilot of this woman but an imposter. Which raises the question of why this deception and what really happened.
Cork, who is also a private investigator on the side, begins to work on this case. He must find out what happened to Jo and he must locate her. Not too far into his hunt Cork is the subject of attempts on his life. It seems that he is getting too close to something. He doesn’t know what but clearly there is someone who does not want Cork asking questions. Of course this only makes Cork more determined.
The wealthy developer who was trying to take over Cork’s property on the lake calls off his battle while Cork searches for answers. In fact this man turns out to be a pretty good character and joins with Cork on his quest. The two of them eventually work out what really happened. The plane did not crash as originally thought but was landed in a remote canyon where the passengers were each shot in the head. Cork’s wife was shot in the chest and did survive for a while having been taken out of the plane by a young Indian boy who had witnessed the landing and killing.
Will Cork find Jo alive in a cabin up in the mountains in a place called “Heaven’s Keep”? Will he find her body somewhere near the plane where she may have escaped only to freeze to death in the ice and snow? Krueger takes us on a breathless and emotional journey and as readers we must have some sort of conclusion that ties all the pieces together. Happily Krueger does tie it all up for us. I give this one a 7 of 10 on the Weaver meter. It is a fine story and you should pick it up and read it. You won’t be disappointed.
