Blood Hollow

b Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger: What a heart breaker.  Seriously.  Like, really seriously.  Reservation heartthrob and troublemaker is accused of the murder of his former rich, white girlfriend who left a party drunk and disappeared right before a blizzard.  Before turning himself in to face trial, he goes on a vision quest and meets Jesus.  Rumors that he's a miracle worker after his Jesus vision start circulating, and things become a circus.  No one is really willing to believe he's turned his life around except Cork.  Things hidden are revealed, and they are so sad and dark.  The denouement was relentlessly heart-breaking, especially with the final epilogue.  Man, I wish things could have shaken out better. 

The funniest (unintentionally) review I read of this book complained of relentless product placement.  I realized later that she thought that what we writers call telling details were product placement somehow.  Oh, lady, product placement is when they pay you to do it.  A telling detail, as I understand it, is when you choose something that locals recognize because that choice says something that deepens the character and brings him more to life.  I am nearly certain that Minnetonka Moccasins did not pay Krueger to make it the butt of an amusing, recurring joke made by the natives, and he probably doesn’t have corporate sponsorship from Leinenkugels.