COPPER RIVER

As David Chandler delivers the graceful, sometimes grisly, prose of Krueger's latest Cork O'Conner mystery, he depicts the rugged beauty of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as if it were one of the characters. O'Connor, who is hiding out from a hit man at his cousin's isolated cabin, becomes entangled in a local murder mystery with roots that are decades old. Chandler's voice moves ably from the lawmen to the sassy teenager who is sought by both police and killer as a witness. The novel gets a bit preachy about the cougar debate among Michigan locals, but Chandler takes the exposition in stride. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 07]