Mercy Falls

Mercy Falls is a novel in William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor mystery series, set in the fictional town of Aurora in northern Minnesota's Tamarack County. The story opens with a flash-forward: an unnamed woman wakes naked and bruised in an unfamiliar bedroom. She discovers a man's body at the bottom of a swimming pool. Another man stands nearby holding a gun. She whispers, "Oh, Cork, no" (6). He is Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor, and the woman is his wife, Jo. He says he came to bring her home.

The narrative jumps back in time. Cork, of mixed Irish and Ojibwe heritage, has recently been reappointed sheriff of Tamarack County. He and Deputy Marsha Dross respond to a domestic disturbance call on the Iron Lake Reservation. The caller identifies herself as Lucy Tibodeau, threatening to beat her husband Eli. When they arrive at the Tibodeaus' remote cabin, it is deserted. Dross spots blood on the ground and is shot by a sniper on a distant hilltop. A second round grazes Cork's ear. He drags Dross to cover and radios for backup. The shooter flees when sirens approach.

Lucy arrives and insists she never made the call; someone impersonated her voice to lure Cork into an ambush. Captain Ed Larson, who heads major-crimes investigations, confirms the call was faked. Dross survives surgery. BCA (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) agent Simon Rutledge joins the investigation. Tire tracks at the shooter's escape route are cast as Goodyear Wrangler MT/Rs. Lydell Cramer, a man burned during a meth lab raid Cork oversaw, is considered a suspect, though Cork doubts Cramer could orchestrate such a sophisticated operation.

Days later, Cork is called to the Mercy Falls overlook, where a man lies dead beside a rented SUV, stabbed 14 times, castrated, and mutilated. Cork identifies the victim: Edward "Eddie" Jacoby, a representative of Starlight Enterprises, a casino management company seeking a contract with the Iron Lake Ojibwe casino. The autopsy reveals the first wound killed Jacoby instantly; the mutilation came postmortem. Drugs in the vehicle include Rohypnol, a date-rape drug. Jo tells Cork that Jacoby was a womanizer who repeatedly made advances toward her.

Eddie's father, Lou Jacoby, a wealthy Chicago patriarch, and his other son, Ben Jacoby, arrive by private jet. Ben reveals Eddie was Lou's illegitimate son, always in trouble, and desperate for the casino deal to salvage his career. At Jo's office, Ben and Jo recognize each other with visible shock: They had a romantic relationship in law school 20 years earlier, and Ben left without explanation. Jo admits to Cork that something still responds in her to Ben's presence, though she insists she loves Cork. Ben gradually inserts himself into the O'Connor family's life, befriending the children and arranging a private university tour for Cork's eldest daughter, Jenny.

Ben introduces Dina Willner, a former FBI Organized Crime Section chief, as a consultant hired by Lou to oversee the investigation. Dina's analysis of the autopsy suggests a calculating killer rather than someone acting in passion. The investigation turns toward the reservation, where Cork learns Eddie was pressuring tribal officials to secure the Starlight contract. Phone records link Jacoby to Stone (Byron St. Onge), a former convict who operates out of the North Star Bar, trafficking in drugs and information. Cork also notices Lizzie Fineday, the bar owner's 20-year-old daughter, with fresh bruises, and suspects Jacoby hurt her.

The threat to Cork escalates when a pipe bomb is found on his Bronco. The bomb squad determines the device could never have detonated: It contained a dead blasting cap and a broken trigger. Cork sends Jo and the children to Evanston, Illinois, to stay with Jo's sister. In Evanston, Ben tells Jo he has loved only one woman in his life and did not marry her. He explains his marriage was arranged by his father and sealed by his dying mother's final wish.

Rutledge traces Cramer's associates to a farm in Carlton County. A dawn raid yields a firefight and a Savage 110GXP3 rifle, which Rutledge sends for ballistics comparison to determine if it was the weapon used against Cork. Yet a threatening phone call that night confirms the true danger remains. Evidence mounts against Lizzie: Her fingerprints appear in Jacoby's SUV. Before the team can question her, Stone flees into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a vast forest along the Canadian border, taking Lizzie with him. He leaves a rifle round matching those from the ambush and a note reading "48 hours."

Cork recruits Henry Meloux, an ancient Ojibwe Mide, or traditional healer and spiritual guide, to track Stone through the wilderness. The party enters by canoe, and Dina follows secretly. Meloux deduces Stone is using Lizzie as bait in a trap. Cork paddles alone to an island where he finds Lizzie drugged and disoriented. Stone ambushes him, and the two fight. Dina shoots Stone dead from a canoe.

In her interview, Lizzie reveals she impersonated Lucy's voice at Stone's request, not knowing he planned to kill anyone. Stone told her someone paid him for the hit on Cork, confirming a contract killing. Regarding Eddie, Lizzie went to him hoping he could help her reach Hollywood. At Mercy Falls, Jacoby drugged and raped her. Before fleeing, she heard an "angel" murmur something like "poor vaceeto." Her father, Will Fineday, admits he found Jacoby already dead and wiped the SUV door handles to protect Lizzie.

Cork suspects Ben arranged the hit on him, reasoning that Ben coveted Jo and used Eddie's connection to Stone. A private investigator warns Cork the Jacoby fortune has ties to organized crime and that Dina may work as a hired killer. Cork confronts Dina after finding a black ski mask in her cosmetics case, evidence she planted the bomb. She admits placing the device to frighten Cork's family out of Aurora for their safety. She reveals Ben hired her to investigate whether Eddie arranged the hit and to neutralize the threat.

The story reaches the scene from the prologue. Jo goes to Ben's Winnetka home to deliver a painting. Ben has canceled, leaving his son Phillip to host her. Phillip serves her a drugged Diet Coke and sexually assaults her while she is unconscious. Cork drives through the night with Dina. At dawn, he hears gunshots and finds Ben's body in the swimming pool with two bullet wounds in his back. Jo emerges disoriented in a white robe. Phillip arrives with a defense attorney, claims the encounter was consensual, and provides an alibi for Ben's murder.

Cork solves Eddie's murder by recognizing that "poor vaceeto" was pobrecito, Spanish for "poor little one," a term Gabriella Jacoby, Eddie's Argentine widow, uses as an endearment. Cork theorizes that Gabriella and her brother Tony Salguero, the family's pilot and a former military officer, killed Eddie. Tony's combat training explains the fatal wound's precision. A witness confirms two Spanish-speaking people visited Mercy Falls that night. Gabriella's motive was to escape an abusive husband, inherit his fortune, and remain close to Lou, who adores her. Cork believes Ben, once told of the pobrecito clue, confronted Gabriella and Tony privately and was murdered for it.

Cork visits Lou, who blames him for everything and vows revenge. Gabriella, now positioned as Lou's gatekeeper, blocks all communication and prevents anyone from reaching the old man with the truth. Dina warns Cork that Lou has placed a half-million-dollar bounty on him. They flee a surveillance car in the night, and Dina gives Cork cash and a pistol, urging him to disappear while she and Larson gather enough evidence to reach Lou. In a brief epilogue, Cork walks alone along a highway at dawn. A pickup truck stops. The driver asks where he is heading. Cork answers only "North," and the truck carries him toward an uncertain future.