Iron Lake, the first novel in William Kent Krueger’s popular Cork O’Connor mystery series, was published in 1999 by Atria Books. The novel was acclaimed on release, winning the Minnesota Book Award, the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, and the Anthony and Barry Awards for Best First Novel in the crime genre. 

The novel’s protagonist, Cork O’Connor, is a former sheriff in Minnesota, who investigates the murder of a local judge. Krueger draws on his interest in cultural anthropology to depict the specific historical context of Minnesota. Since O’Connor is of Irish and Anishinaabe ancestry, Krueger consults with texts written by Anishinaabe historians and works with Anishinaabe readers and editors to accurately represent the Anishinaabe culture in Minnesota.

This study guide refers to the e-book edition of the novel, published in 1999 by Atria Books.

Content Warning: The source text discusses suicide, murder, and alcohol use disorder. In addition, the source text depicts racism toward Indigenous cultures and peoples, and uses outdated and offensive terms for Anishinaabe and Dakota people, which are replicated in this guide only in direct quotes.

Plot Summary

When Cork O’Connor gets a call from Darla LeBeau telling him her son Paul is missing, he immediately begins investigating. Like most of the residents of the Aurora and Iron Lake communities in Minnesota, Darla still sees Cork as an authority figure who can be trusted, even though the previous year he lost his position as sheriff of Tamarack County. For some residents, the fact that he isn’t sheriff anymore is a good thing—the local Anishinaabe community doesn’t trust local law enforcement. Although Cork’s mother was Anishinaabe, Cork wasn’t trusted when he was sheriff.

The investigation into Paul’s disappearance leads Cork to Judge Parrant’s house—Paul’s last known location—where he finds the judge dead of an apparent suicide. Although the current sheriff, Wally Schanno, accepts suicide as the cause of death, Cork isn’t so sure.

Cork and his wife Jo are separated, and Jo wants a divorce. The events that led Cork to lose his job were catastrophic and personally devastating. Cork tried to safely guide some Anishinaabe people spearfishing but ran into a protest by white residents. The altercation became violent, resulting in the death of Cork’s closest friend, Sam Winter Moon. Cork killed the man who shot Sam. Cork has spent the past year in grief, withdrawn from Jo and his family.

Jo is a lawyer who works with the Anishinaabe and white communities alike. In particular, she works closely with Sandy Parrant, Judge Parrant’s son and co-owner of their development company. When Cork finds out that Jo and Sandy have been having an affair, he is devastated and becomes determined to put his family back together. Cork ends his new relationship with Molly Nurmi, even though Jo has told him that their divorce is going to happen.

Meanwhile, as Cork investigates the judge’s death, he discovers just how deep the corruption in the local community goes. The judge has photographs and files on nearly everyone in the community that he uses as leverage for fraud: The judge’s business ostensibly employs as consultants many powerful people in the area, including the sheriff, paying them to look the other way while his company siphons money from the new local casino. He is also involved with the Minnesota Civilian Brigade, a white supremacy group involved in the death of Paul LeBeau’s father, Joe John, who discovered the judge’s conspiracy while working as a custodian.

Harlan Lytton, a member of the Minnesota Civilian Brigade, calls Cork, saying he has something to show him. Cork goes to the man’s house, only to find him dead. In a darkroom, Cork finds a file with Jo’s name on it. Inside, he sees photos of Jo and Sandy having sex that are dated before Jo and Cork’s separation. Cork realizes that she has been having an affair with Sandy for a long time. While searching Harlan’s house for the negatives, Cork is attacked by a masked man who escapes on a snowmobile. That night, Cork reconciles with Molly and hides the negatives at her house.

Cork eventually finds Paul, whom Darla, Father Tom, and Wanda Manydeeds have been hiding. The group worries that Paul is in danger, and they don’t trust the white sheriff to protect him. They confess to the various murders: Wanda killed Judge Parrant in an altercation about his role in orchestrating the death of Joe John LeBeau, while Paul killed Harlan—the man who actually killed Joe John. Cork tells Paul to lay low until he finishes investigating.

The next day, when Molly takes a sauna, a man comes in and drags her out onto the ice and into the lake, where she dies. Cork and Jo find her body and know that someone killed her, but when the coroner rules it a suicide, Cork doesn’t protest. He is sure that Molly’s killer is Sandy Parrant, who was worried that the negatives could ruin his political career. Cork and Jo go to Sandy’s house, but it appears that he is innocent.

Jo and Sandy tell Cork to meet them at Molly’s cabin. However, soon after, Jo discovers that Sandy is, in fact, Molly’s murderer. Sandy now plans to kill Jo and Cork and make it look like a murder-suicide. However, Jo and Cork escape into the woods, where his friend Henry Meloux appears to help them. Jo hides, and Henry and Cork go out onto the ice. Sandy bears down on them in his car, but Jo, who has gotten Cork’s rifle from the cabin, shoots Sandy’s windshield, causing the car to flip and explode.

In the following days, Cork mourns Molly and takes a Christmas tree to her cabin.