Purgatory Ridge

A logging mill outside Aurora is blown apart in the night, killing the watchman. The mill belongs to Karl Lindstrom, and the timber he means to cut includes Our Grandfathers, a stand of ancient white pine the Anishinaabe hold sacred.

Cork O'Connor is asked to investigate, and finds himself standing in the worst possible place: he is part Anishinaabe, his wife Jo is the tribe's lawyer, and his own family's safety is bound up in the outcome. When a kidnapping follows the bombing, the dispute stops being about trees.

Purgatory Ridge is the third Cork O'Connor novel, and the one that most directly sets the claims of the Ojibwe community against the economy of the white town that surrounds it.