{"id":4520,"date":"2022-08-12T06:37:36","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T13:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4520"},"modified":"2022-08-12T06:38:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T13:38:42","slug":"william-kent-krueger-and-the-enduring-legacy-of-the-series-detective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/william-kent-krueger-and-the-enduring-legacy-of-the-series-detective\/","title":{"rendered":"William Kent Krueger and the Enduring Legacy of the series detective"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Many many long moons ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle not only created Sherlock Holmes, he created the concept of \u201ca single character running through a series\u201d a.k.a., the series detective.\u00a0 While of course the stories themselves are wonderful, the creation of this series character has had perhaps the longest shadow over detective fiction, and, I would argue, the most enduring.\u00a0 Series detectives are not just appreciated, they are beloved.\u00a0 After a certain point in a series, the point is not really the story, the point is what is happening to the character.\u00a0 They have their own lives, something which, I imagine, might be irritating for their creators (I know it was for Conan Doyle and Christie).\u00a0 They can hardly be killed off, Sherlock Holmes being the most outstanding example as pastiches featuring Holmes outnumber Conan Doyle\u2019s actual work.<\/p>\n

As girls many of us started this romance with the series detective in the form of titian haired, clever Nancy Drew, who solved mysterious happenings and had a group of helpful friends. For myself, the romance continued in middle school with my inhalation and discovery of Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple.\u00a0 In college, it was the suave Lord Peter that caught my attention, and after college, thanks to a father in law in the book of the month club, I discovered V.I. Warshawski, Kinsey Milhone, and Joe Leaphorn.\u00a0 I loved V.I. so much she inspired me, a few years later, to want to open a bookstore specializing in detective fiction.<\/p>\n

And through the years there have been so many more (I\u2019m sure you have your own list) \u2013 Nero Wolfe, Spenser, Adam Dalgleish, Harry Bosch, Maud Silver, Roderick Allyn, Elvis Cole, Armand Gamache, Alex McKnight, Tess Monaghan, Inspector Lynley and Ruth Galloway \u2013 just to call out a few.\u00a0 With brings me to William Kent Krueger\u2019s Cork O\u2019Connor, who has, I think, achieved the status of a detective you want to check in on, no matter what the story.\u00a0 Of course all of these writers also <\/em>write wonderful stories, but it\u2019s the detective, I think, that brings you back every time.<\/p>\n

I started thinking about what the commonalities were between these characters.\u00a0 Intelligence is, I think, the major factor.\u00a0 The detective should be a little bit ahead of the reader. Other than that, things aren\u2019t so clear \u2013 there\u2019s humor (Spenser, Elvis Cole, Ruth Galloway), there\u2019s humanity (Gamache, Marple, Leaphorn, O\u2019Connor), there\u2019s a network of \u201cchums\u201d like Nancy Drew had.\u00a0 In every case there\u2019s at the very least a sidekick, and here again, Cork O\u2019Connor fits in, as his family and community are his \u201cchums.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Krueger\u2019s nineteenth Cork O\u2019Connor novel, Fox Creek, <\/em>the revered (and extremely elderly) Henry Meloux has vanished, most unfortunately, with Cork\u2019s wife, Rainy.\u00a0 Many of Krueger\u2019s novels are chase novels centered in the Minnesota wilderness, and this novel is one of those, as Henry, Rainy and another woman are tracked by an expert known as LaLoup, and followed in turn by Cork and a native cop, the brother in law of the other missing woman. The narratives alternate between Cork, Rainy, and LeLoup, but the overriding theme of this novel might be (as in several other Cork O\u2019Connor novels): do not underestimate Henry Meloux, even if he is, as in this novel, almost 100 years old.<\/p>\n

Krueger\u2019s gifts, along with a skill at delineating character, include a narrative drive that does not let up.\u00a0 Beautifully written these books may be, but they are also non stop stories, hard to put down. As the book progresses, the reader is drawn into the thought processes of Henry and LaLoup, and to a lesser extent, Cork and Rainy.\u00a0 The way all of the characters think<\/em> and react<\/em> determine the story.\u00a0 This story truly belongs to Henry which is a delight, because Henry brings clarity of thought and reaction to everything he does.\u00a0 He makes things seems simple, and of course the simplest actions and reactions are often the most difficult.<\/p>\n

I loved being back in the company of these characters and taking a trip through the Minnesota wilderness, even if danger filled. As in every Krueger novel, there\u2019s also a thoughtful social commentary integrated into the plot.\u00a0 Not sure how Krueger manages this in an action novel, but he does. Thank heavens for the series detective, and most especially for Cork O’Connor and his gifted creator.<\/p>\n

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Many many long moons ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle not only created Sherlock Holmes, he created the concept of \u201ca single character running through a series\u201d a.k.a., the series detective.\u00a0 While of course the stories themselves are wonderful, the creation of this series character has had perhaps the longest shadow over detective fiction, and, I … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[884,886,882,885,883,450,176],"class_list":["post-4520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-atria-books","tag-cork-oconnor","tag-fox-creek","tag-henry-meloux","tag-series-detectives","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-william-kent-krueger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4520"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4532,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions\/4532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}