William Kent Krueger

William Kent Krueger is an American crime fiction author known for the Cork O'Connor mystery series set in the Minnesota Northwoods and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. He won the Anthony Award for Best Novel for Ordinary Grace (2014), a standalone novel set in 1961 Minnesota that became his most celebrated work. Born in Cascade Locks, Oregon in 1950, Krueger studied philosophy at Stanford University. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, loggers, and other occupations before writing full-time. The Cork O'Connor series, beginning with Iron Lake (1998), features a former county sheriff with mixed Ojibwe heritage. Ordinary Grace is a coming-of-age story about two brothers who witness the aftermath of multiple deaths in their small Minnesota town during the summer of 1961. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and has served as president of Mystery Writers of America.