Apostle’s Cove

Edgar winner Krueger continues his long-running Cork O’Connor series (after Spirit Crossing) with a top-shelf whodunit. Cork, now a PI, is dreading his upcoming 60th birthday when he gets a call from his son, Stephen, an intern with an Innocence Project–style organization that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions. Stephen believes that the first major investigation Cork oversaw as sheriff of Tamarack County, Minn., put an innocent man behind bars. The first half of the book recounts that case, detailing the murder of Chastity Boshey and the events that led to the confession and conviction of her husband, Axel. The second half sees Cork reopen the case only to meet puzzling resistance from Axel, and look into a new murder that seems linked to Chastity’s. Krueger’s muscular prose keeps the action chugging along, but not at the expense of detailed character work: the author’s portraits of Axel, Cork, and their associates across more than a quarter-century lend the narrative a stirring humanity. Add in a vividly rendered setting and an elegant dual-timeline plot, and this proves that Krueger is still at the top of his game. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Brown & Miller Literary Assoc. (Sept.)