Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Coel's descriptive artistry, as shown in her 11th whodunit (after 2004's Wife of Moon), surely makes her the James Lee Burke of Native American mystery writers. Readers will be immediately entrenched in the solid reality of the Wind River Reservation and Father John O'Malley's alarm on receiving a cryptic voice-mail message that leads him to a century-old battlefield and three newly slain Shoshones. Could these be revenge killings for the bloody battle that took place between the now co-existing Arapahos and Shoshones? When a client of Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden, Frankie Montana, is accused of the murders, Vicky's law partner and lover, Adam Lone Eagle, urges her to pass Montana to the attractive new lawyer in town. Past experience sets off her warning bells, and Vicky begins to wonder about Adam's interest in the beautiful blond newcomer. The wary familiarity between Vicky and Father John continues even as the two are drawn into an expanding circle of death. Delving into the depths of this magnificently crafted volume is like digging into your favorite layer cake-thoroughly delicious. Agent, Rich Henshaw. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Coel's popular "Wind River Reservation" series continues with the discovery of three dead Shoshones on the site of an old battlefield where Arapahos were slaughtered (by Shoshones) in 1874. One of Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden's clients, who argued with the three, becomes the prime suspect. Riveting work from an accomplished author, who lives in Boulder, CO. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Ancient quarrels erupt anew between the Arapaho and Shoshone tribes on the Wind River Reservation. The massacre at Bates Battlefield, when Shoshone warriors helped the U.S. Cavalry ambush an Arapaho village, was a turning point in Old Time, marking the end of the Arapahos as a nation. But poor planning and indifference at the Department of Indian Affairs placed the remaining Arapahos in the southeast corner of Wind River, only miles from their Shoshone rivals. Their fragile coexistence is rocked when Father John O'Malley, pastor of St. Francis Mission, gets a strange call about dead bodies at Bates and goes there to find three murdered Shoshones, posed as if killed in battle. O'Malley's worries grow as he meets Edie Bradbury, a student at Central Wyoming College, whose Shoshone boyfriend, Trent Hunter, has disappeared. Detective Andy Burton blames the killings on chronic troublemaker Frankie Montana, who was in a bar fight with Hunter and the Crispin brothers just a few weeks before. But Frankie's lawyer, Vicky Holden, disagrees. Despite her lover Adam Lone Eagle's entreaties to stop defending losers like Frankie and turn her attention to high-profile cases instead, she seeks help from O'Malley and history professor Charles Lambert to prove her client's innocence before tribal war breaks out. Coel's latest Wind River chronicle (Killing Raven, 2003, etc.) offers a skillful blend of history and mystery, with characters whose motives are seldom what they seem. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
