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Heaven's Keep (Cork O'Connor #9)

4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 · rating details · 1,154 ratings · 144 reviews

When a charter plane carrying Cork O’Connor’s wife, Jo, goes missing in a snowstorm over the Wyoming Rockies, Cork must accept the terrible truth that his wife is gone forever. But is she? In Heaven’s Keep, celebrated author William Kent Krueger puts his intrepid hero through the most harrowing mission of his life.

In the dark days following Jo’s disappearance, Cork struggl...more

ebook, 336 pages

Published September 1st 2009 by Atria Books (first published 2009)

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Jan 22, 2013 Harry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: detective-mystery, favorites

William Kent Krueger's Cork O'OConnor series comprise a series of stories set in Aurora Minnesota, an area of the country of which I'm blatantly ignorant. Frankly, in reading the reviews of this setting I managed to barely stifle a yawn. Small town mysteries set in a frozen wasteland? With boring backgrounds that involve Indian supernatural folklore - I don't stomach mysteries that resort to such subterfuge, avoid beyond this world explanations when the genre is detective/mystery, decry irration...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Katharine Kimbriel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Mystery lovers, readers who like fiction dealing with modern NA Indians

Recommended to Katharine by: CJ MIlls

Shelves: mystery, contemporary-fiction

A friend, who loaned me her copy of the book, recommended this series to me. The question was, could I enter a series nine books in? I like mysteries that take me places I haven’t been before, and this tale of Cork O’Connor, Irish and Anishinaabe, former sheriff and now investigator, family man firmly rooted in his small community in the desolate reaches of Minnesota, definitely went places that were new.

Heaven’s Keep begins with apparent tragedy. Cork’s lawyer wife, Jo, disappears when a charte...more A friend, who loaned me her copy of the book, recommended this series to me. The question was, could I enter a series nine books in? I like mysteries that take me places I haven’t been before, and this tale of Cork O’Connor, Irish and Anishinaabe, former sheriff and now investigator, family man firmly rooted in his small community in the desolate reaches of Minnesota, definitely went places that were new.

Heaven’s Keep begins with apparent tragedy. Cork’s lawyer wife, Jo, disappears when a charter plane goes missing in a blizzard over the Wyoming Rockies. Not only Jo but important elders of several native American communities were on board, and this loss has not only personal but political implications. It’s a treacherous landscape, capable of swallowing up a plane for years, and little hope moves slowly but inexorably to no hope.

Then, months later, two women bring to Cork evidence that the pilot of the plane was not the man he claimed to be. It’s a line of hope, and Cork takes hold of the thread and pulls. He is up against possible local law enforcement on the take, the open hostility of the Northern Arapaho (who have much to lose however events unfold) and continuing attempts on his life by unknown assassins. Helping his young son deal with events is only one of the personal problems dogging his trail. There is also a faint hope that somehow his wife might still be alive.

Krueger has been called a writer’s writer, and he is gifted with strength in atmosphere and character, his words spinning a tale that is at once contemporary and yet timeless. His ability to capture a sense of place is formidable, and his work carries an emotional punch. With one hand he adds forensic medicine to his mix, and with the other, native visions -- and the results are very good, indeed.

This was not a fast book, but it was well worth the trip. I’ll read other books by Krueger, and recommend this one, but I’d suggest starting earlier in the series, or even at the beginning. I’m sure there was nuance I missed by reading a book this far into the series.
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Feb 03, 2010 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the ninth in the series.

Separating the storyline from his writing style, his writing is always good. I'm giving this four stars because I've given him so many three stars on good stories that were 3.5 or just shy of four. Some of the three stars are better than this one, but I felt guilty giving yet another three star review on this series.

The beginning was a disappointment to me--headed for two stars. There was no mystery, just an adventure story; interesting, but not what I was reading...more

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Nov 09, 2009 LJ rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary_post_1945, minnesota, mystery, unlicensed_investigator, wyoming, male_author

First Sentence: In the weeks after the tragedy, as he accumulates pieces of information, he continues to replay that morning in his mind.

Cork O’Connor and his wife, Jo, parted in anger as she left on a business. He learns her plane has disappeared from radar over the Wyoming Rockies and, with his son, travels West to be part of the search, but to no avail. Months later, the wife of the pilot, who was said to have been drunk while flying, turns upon Cork’s doorstep saying it wasn’t her husband fl...more First Sentence: In the weeks after the tragedy, as he accumulates pieces of information, he continues to replay that morning in his mind.

Cork O’Connor and his wife, Jo, parted in anger as she left on a business. He learns her plane has disappeared from radar over the Wyoming Rockies and, with his son, travels West to be part of the search, but to no avail. Months later, the wife of the pilot, who was said to have been drunk while flying, turns upon Cork’s doorstep saying it wasn’t her husband flying the plane. His investigation causes him to think the accidental wasn’t accidental. So where is Jo?

There were things I loved and things I didn’t love about this book.

Krueger creates interesting characters that seem very real. However, I don’t always feel he uses them to full advantage. Cork’s friend, Henry Meloux, is one of the most interesting recurring characters. Here, he had almost a cameo role. We see Cork’s son Stephen growing up. Henry sends him on a vision quest, but we have no idea what happened as it was all off-stage. At the same time, Krueger’s incorporation of the metaphysical is both interesting and well done, never overpowering the story.

This descriptions are wonderfully evocative and his dialogue true to the ear. I would not have been appropriate to the story, but I missed the wry humor usually apparent in this books.

What I didn’t love was the plot. Killing off the protagonist’s mate seems to be a popular theme these days and one that, to me, seems easier than keeping the relationship realistic and progressing; of which I felt Krueger had done a good job until now. I was, however, impressed by Krueger’s ability to convey emotion. The motives didn’t work for me. It seemed a bit over the top and lacking the usual suspense.

Most of the book I felt was very good, but it did fall apart toward the end. Krueger is still an author whose style I very much enjoy. By no means is he off my buy list. I’ll be there for the next book as soon as it comes out.

HEAVEN’S KEEP (Unl Invest-Cork O’Connor-Minnesota/Wyoming-Cont) – G+
Krueger, William Kent – 9th in series
Atria Books, 2009, US Hardcover – ISBN: 9781416556763
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Sep 22, 2009 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-audio-books, 2009-mysteries

Heaven’s Keep, by William Kent Krueger, A. Narrated by Buck Schirner, produced by Brilliance Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Jo, Cork’s wife, is going on a charter plane with other tribal leaders to a conference in Seattle to help in the presentation of a paper for the conference. Cork is suing a land developer who wants to build condos and ruin the shoreline of Iron Lake. Since Jo is an attorney, Cork wants her to help him. But she points out that he’s likely to lose the battle, particularly...more

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Sep 06, 2009 Dana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book starts off with a plane crash in the Wyoming Rockies during a snowstorm. On board is Jo O'Connor and some Native Americans on their way to a meeting. Cork O'Coonor, husband of Jo is unwilling to just sit and wait for news. He decides to go to Casper, Wyoming with his 13 year old son, Steven in tow, to find his wife. Because he is a retired sheriff, he is given the full co-operation of the police and search personnel. Following a vision by an Arapaho Indian, he flies over Heaven's Keep,...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Lynn Hallbrooks rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: friend-s-library-books

I'm so glad that my friend got this book from a local library and shared it with me. It has given me yet another wonderful author to follow. I do find Mr. Krueger's use of imagery a tiny bit out of place with the genre but it seems to work for him, so who am I to judge.

Heaven's Keep is a really good mystery book that keeps you guessing and sometimes re-guessing about what is really going on. Not to spoil anything but I do recommend having a hanky available at all times. It really is that emotio...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Nadeen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-read

While this is the 9th in the series, this the first one I have "read". "Read" is in quotes, since this was an audio listen and I will review it as such. The story was a good one for a drive or several drives since it took a few to finish the 9 CDs. There were times when I got home and sat in the driveway to finish the chapter and that is always a good sign. The characters were well drawn, for the most part, and the descriptions made me feel as though I were there. The narrator did a good job dis...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

#10 in the Series about Cork O'Connor and I am telling you, Mr Krueger just gets better and better with each installment!

This is a tough one to write about ONLY because there is SO much that goes on and I do not want to give ANYTHING away!

I will share...that most of this story takes place not in Minnesota but in Wyoming, where the plane that was carrying his wife Jo and some fellow Indian representatives has gone missing.

(Not giving anything away, this is printed on the back cover of the book)...more

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Jun 17, 2010 S.D. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series has always been a favorite of mine. Cold Minnesota weather, Native American culture, a protagonist with a great sense of right and wrong…what’s not to like? In the opening of HEAVEN’S KEEP we learn that Cork’s wife, Jo, is reported missing in a plane accident. After several weeks of searching, she is presumed dead and after several months all hope is lost, until the pilot’s widow shows Cork a video proving that her husband was not drunk when he piloted the plane. O...more

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Sep 11, 2010 Jodi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is a rare occasion I give a book 5 stars. I reserve that rating for the very best. A book that rocks my world. Heaven's Keep is one of the best if not the best book in the Cock O'Connor series, which is in my top five favorite series. The book starts out with an intriguing and frightening prologue in which Cork's wife Jo is on a small private plane with Indian representatives from different tribes heading to a conference in Seattle. The plane disappears from radar in a snow storm in Wyoming....more

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Aug 27, 2010 Ed rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Crime fiction and adventure fans

Shelves: crime-fiction, reviewed

In a way, I'm sorry I read this book before reading the preceding books in the Cork O'Connor series but I got an opportunity to mooch this volume so I went for it. Nevertheless, this was a totally engaging story and kept me enthralled until I finished it in less than two days.

The plot covers much more than simple Crime Fiction as it contains elements of love, adventure, family, spirituality, revenge, greed, friendship, community, etc.

The basic plot is that O'Connor's wife and seven others disapp...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Al Stoess rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Most everyone

Not as good as some of others. Never thought he would kill off the hero's wife.

Second reading. Thought more highly of it. One of his better books. Still didn't think he would kill off the hero's wife. Although the ending about her care, death, and interim resting place was well thought out.

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Dec 23, 2010 Carolyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book blew me away. I recently discovered the Cork O'Connor series, and have enjoyed them all, but this one I found particularly compelling. It combined mystery (what happened? how? why? will he find his wife, dead or alive?), adventure (deep back country of Wyoming, plane wrecks, horse riding, overland driving), intrigue (who's a good guy, who's a bad guy), character development (the effects on a man's -- and boy's -- soul of grief and violence), all seamlessly woven together in Krueger's c...more

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Aug 30, 2009 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller-mystery-suspense

Wow! I rate this the best addition thus far to the Cork O'Connor series by William Kent Krueger: Terrific plotting (I will say nothing about the plot - you simply have the read the book; suffice to say that it gets going in a big way on page 1), with several clever twists and turns, including unexpected shifts in the basic direction of the story; great writing; excellent pacing. Actually, my only criticism is that the book, which is still a few hundred pages long, is too short - this is a novel...more

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Oct 22, 2010 Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Cork O'Connor's wife goes missing with several others in a plane crash in Wyoming during a snowstorm. And given the severity of the snow and the miles of terrain to explore, it seems certain that all aboard the plane are dead. But what seems at first to be a tragic accident becomes more complex as Cork digs deeper into the world of the Arapaho Indians in Wyoming and the corruption involving a new casino. What really happened to that plane?

Another highly engaging mystery from William Kent Krueger...more

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Jan 10, 2012 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, series

Number 9 in the Cork O'Connor series. The prologue to the book is somewhat unusual for Krueger and at first is confusing - eventually it makes sense. I have enjoyed the previous books in this series and this one was no exception. The book contains the usual cast of characters and introduces an new one who is pivotal to the story. It remains to be seen if he will continue on in future outings. Not much can be said about the plot without spoilers. The developing relationship between Cork and his s...more

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Nov 30, 2009 Sue Radley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have read William Kent Krueger's books and this one was as amazing and on the "edge" as his other books. This book delves deep into Cork O'Connor's love for his wife and his search to find her. It portrays his emotions - as if on a roller coaster. Trying to accept life at its best and worst and the acceptance of life as it is handed to you. I stayed up late last night just to finish the book because it had me wrapped in suspense. I was so bound up in this book that I cried at the end. I do rec...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Jami rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well... it was ok. I wanted to like Cork I really did. This is a middle book in a series I haven't read any of the others. Their was an air of melancholy throughout this book that left little doubt as to the ending and I felt that the native american aspect of it to be cliche bordering on comical. Then you have Hugh Parmer who seems too good to be true, a broody teenager who matures practically overnight(very realistic *note sarcasm), and Cork, whose name kind of annoyed me, as a very typical ex...more

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Apr 01, 2011 LeeAnne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think I am growing weary of this series. The "cliffhanger" at the end of Mercy Falls had me chucking that one across the room and vowing never to read another in the series but...I'm back. This one was just sort of okay. More drama/soap opera than mystery with a shocking ending meant to send the reader running full-tilt to the next book in the series. Meh. I'll get there when I get there. I am finding Cork's vacillation between the Native American religious practice and Catholicism to be irrit...more

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Mar 30, 2010 Anita rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery, william-kent-krueger, cork-oconner

This was my first Cork OConner book. I usually don't read books mid series..kind of virgo of me. But I decided to give it a try. The plot was somewhat disheartening--Cork losing his wife, however, other story parts kept me reading. I liked the dream visions and how they played in/out in the story. I totally dug the descriptions of Wyoming and the Minnesota and Duluth areas. I thought it was cute how Cork either drank Leinenkugels or Fat Tire (I have a strong preference for either myself). The pl...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Hamlen Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, american-indian, minnesota

Whoa - evolve Cork's immediate family, again. The girls are grown and moved out, the boy is visiting / working on Hugh Parmer's ranch in Texas and Mom gets killed in an intricate plot involving Arapahoes, Ojibwes, gambling and the conflict between the love of community versus a lover. Cork works through his grief the only way he could - by taking action and solving the riddle.

Krueger is keeping his protagonist growing by changing his circumstances.

Hopefully, this isn't just a precursor for expl...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Surreysmum rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, mystery, passed-on

I've been anticipating/dreading this instalment in the Cork O'Connor series ever since I read a teaser for it at the end of one of the earlier novels. It's the one where Jo, Cork's wife, goes down in a plane crash. She's presumed dead by Cork and his family, albeit with the faintest thread of hope emerging now and again, right up to the end of the novel. I won't say any more so as not to spoil.

Grief and winter go cruelly hand in hand in this one, and the title, as always, is a geographical featu...more

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Oct 01, 2009 Dawn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let me start by saying it was better than the last Cork O'Connor book. Was it as great as Iron Lake? No. I think Kent is running out of things to write about. It was interesting that some of it was set in Wyoming. It was interesting that parts of Cork's family were involed, while others weren't involved enough. I didn't feel the emotion of the family in the horrific events that took place. I should have cried, but didn't. I want to feel what happens with the characters, and it just didn't do it...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Mudge rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is, far and away, my least favorite book in this series. Its feels disjointed, slapped together (kinda like this review). I've loved every book in the series to this point, but the ending here is unsatisfying, not because of what happened, that's logical, but because feels like the book is written without a conclusion in mind and therefore the ending feels rushed and very out of place.

I hope the next book has the old Cork O'Connor feel to it. If not i may not read many more.

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Nov 14, 2011 LeAnne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, mystery-thriller

Starts kind of slow because everyone is so nice, but then you realize something else is going on and maybe not everyone who seems nice really is. Powerful emotions of losing Jo and guilt over last parting. The spectacular setting is Wyoming rather than Minnesota, but he does go to Rice Lake, Wisconsin! Even little Stevie is growing up in this one. Ojibwe faith plays a larger role and some readers may find the lack of distinction between that and Roman Catholicism to be uncomfortable.

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Jul 29, 2011 Catherine Woodman added it · review of another edition

I believe this is the first book that I have read with this protagonist--but I might be wrong. The guy is just not that memorable. The plot is well written, the story is okay (a little gruesome, and the reason for it is not all that well detailed--maybe it is linked to something in another book that comes before it, but as a stand alone, it is hard to figure out why you would do what was done here). But enjoyable enough as a mystery, just not something I would seek out again.

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Nov 05, 2009 Kayeb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had forgotten about this series and was glad to find it again. However, it doesn't rank a 5 for me due to the death of Cork O'Connors wife. I now authors have their own form of inspriation, and there are times new characters, new circumstances, etc are needed to keep things lively, but I really don't like when people I like are killed off, and there seems to be enough other ways to develop characters without this. But....it happens, and it did and it was still a book I enjoyed!

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Feb 07, 2013 Tracy Treanor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really like this book. It takes place in Wyoming and Minnesota (with another little detour) so it was fun to read about places I'm with which I'm familiar. The references to Native Americans was great, and it was interesting to hear about life on the reservation. I don't listen to many books on tape read by men, so this was a bit of a challenge to get into, but once I did, I couldn't wait to get in the car to see what happened next. Made my driving a bit easier!

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Nov 10, 2010 Pat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: detective-thriller

Though Kruegar's books are detective thrillers, I'm always comforted by the main character,Cork O'Connor and his family, and the Native American connection. I really can't even tell you why, other than I enjoy the wisdom of Henry Melioux, and the rugged beauty of Northern Minnesota depicted the descriptions. The stories keep me turning pages, but it always feels like I'm visiting with an old friend when I pick up one of this particular series to read.

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About William Kent Krueger

William Kent Krueger is a multi award-winning American author and crime writer, best known for his Cork O'Connor series of books, which is mainly set in Minnesota. USA.[1:] In 2005 and 2006, he won back to back Anthony Awards for best novel - a feat only matched by one other writer since the award's inception.[2:]

William Kent Krueger has stated that he dates his desire to be a writer back to the t...more

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Heaven's Keep (Cork O'Connor #9)

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