A boy becomes a detective in ‘Lightning Strike’; a woman on edge of sanity in ‘My Sweet Girl’

Origin stories deepen insight into what drives characters by showing the how and why of their development.

Award-winner William Kent Krueger’s 18th novel in his bestselling series about private detective Cork O’Connor takes readers back to the former Minnesota sheriff ’s childhood. That’s when the then

12-year-old developed his investigative skills and his interest in solving crimes. Krueger is known for lyrical writing, a perceptive look at racism, especially involving Native Americans, and rich storytelling. He excels at all in “Lightning Strike.”

“Lightning Strike” begins in 1989 when Cork is beginning his first day as Tamarack County sheriff, a job his father, Liam, had. The plot quickly moves to 1963 when

12-year-old Cork and his best friend Jorge are hiking in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest when they find the body of Big John Manydeeds, a much-liked resident of the nearby Iron Lake Reservation and the uncle of a friend of Cork. The death is ruled a suicide, especially when it appears that Big John, a recovering alcoholic, had a relapse.

Liam worries that Cork was too young to see such a brutal sight. While that does bother him, Cork, who is one-quarter Ojibwe, thinks there is more to the death, especially after believing he sees an apparition of Big John’s troubled spirit.

Krueger makes the most of his young investigator, showing Cork as a bright, curious boy whose investigation is a way to establish his own identity.

“Lightning Strike” skillfully explores the bonds

‘Lightning Strike’

By William Kent Krueger. Atria, 400 pages, $27

‘My Sweet Girl’

By Amanda Jayatissa. Berkley, 384 pages, $26

between father and son. Liam deeply loves his son but isn’t always able to tell Cork how much he loves him, a result of his own childhood. Liam is both proud of his son’s investigation but worries that Cork isn’t ready for such an adult endeavor. Likewise, Cork is trying to understand the man who is his father.

“Lightning Strike” also delves into Cork’s family history as well as the history of the Ojibwe and the American government’s treatment of Native Americans.

“Lightning Strike” is a superb addition to Krueger’s superior series.

A sweet debut

Sri Lankan author Amanda Jayatissa’s debut “My Sweet Girl” marks the entrance of a new talent. In this psychological thriller, Jayatissa calls on Hitchcockian themes, her cultural background and the increasingly popular unreliable narrator for a story that takes deep turns as the suspenseful plot turns inside out.

Paloma Evans is no sweet girl, though that’s what her wealthy, white adoptive parents called her when they adopted her at age 12 from a Sri Lanka orphanage and brought her to San Francisco. That was 18 years ago, and the promise of a perfect life never came.

Although her loving parents tried to give her everything — material things, the best education and emotional support — Paloma has always been wracked with guilt that she doesn’t deserve this life, that she abandoned her friends at the orphanage, that her lighter complexion was why she was chosen.

At age 30, she drinks to excess and hallucinates that she is being stalked by Mohini, a mythic evil spirit who terrified her in the orphanage. She is estranged from her parents, who cut off her funds because of a secret in her past.

Finding the body of her roommate in their squalid apartment, she calls the police before passing out. The police find no body, or any evidence that she even had a roommate.

Jayatissa delivers a forceful portrait of a young woman teetering on the edge of sanity, prone to violence over the

“Lightning Strike” is the origin story of William Kent Krueger’s private detective Cork O’Connor.

Amanda Jayatissa’s debut novel is “My Sweet Girl.”

least slight. Scenes alternate from San Francisco to Paloma’s life in the Sri Lankan orphanage, where her personality was established.

No matter how out of control Paloma becomes, Jayatissa keeps the reader on her side.

A surprise twist and a noirish ending further elevate “My Sweet Girl.”

SANDUN