An instant New York Times bestseller, this prequel to the acclaimed Cork OConnor series is a pitch perfect, richly imagined story that is both an edge-of-your-seat thriller and an evocative, emotionally charged coming-of-age tale (Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author) about fathers and sons, small-town conflicts, and the events that shape our lives forever.
Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesotas Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to twelve-year-old Cork OConnor, 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. Corks father, Liam OConnor, is Auroras sheriff and it is his job to confirm that the mans death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his fathers 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 brilliant achievement, and one every crime reader and writer needs to celebrate (Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author), beloved novelist William Kent Krueger shows that some mysteries can be solved even as others surpass our understanding.
