Review by Booklist Review
Sharon David, a Native American actress, arrives on the Arapaho Wind River Reservation in Wyoming determined to find her biological parents. She hires attorney Vicki Holden to help her do so. Meanwhile, Father Joseph Keenan, assistant to Father John O'Malley, is killed while driving Father John's car. Determined to find the murderer, Father John launches an investigation, eventually joining forces with Holden when a link between the actress and Father Joseph is established. Coel's latest is among the best mysteries of the year. Coel has a rare gift for portraying engaging, realistic characters, devising a difficult puzzle, and pacing everything at a brisk, nail-biting canter. She writes vividly about western landscapes and Native American customs, and best of all, she gives her characters--representing different worldviews--plenty of room to play off one another as they stumble toward the truth. Holden, in particular, has developed into a much more complex and satisfying individual, balancing Native American and white cultures with earnestness and dry humor. Coel is clearly at the top of her game. --John Rowen
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Fr. John O'Malley and attorney Vicky Holden solve a mystery and wrestle with their mutualÄand forbiddenÄattraction in another suspenseful outing (after The Story Teller, 1998). When his elderly assistant is killed on a back road on the Wind River Arapaho Reservation in Wyoming, Father John assumes that he himself was the target, since the dead man was driving his truck and had just stepped out of it when he was shot. Soon, however, he learns that the frail old priest, who once held Father John's current post as head of the St. Francis Mission, came back to the reservation to expose a long-buried crime against the Arapaho people. When Holden, an Arapaho lawyer, hears that a priest has been murdered, she fears the worst, since Sonny Red Wolf, an angry Indian separatist, has often vowed to drive Father John off the reservation. After Holden finds Father John alive, she embarks on her own investigation of the murder. Meanwhile, movie star Sharon David hires Holden to trace her true lineage; she is convinced she was born to Arapaho parents on the reservation and given away for adoption. Holden repeats the local legendÄthat many Arapaho babies died of a mysterious sickness around the time of Sharon David's birth, so no Arapaho would let a baby go. Probing, however, she uncovers a plot involving a clinic and a famous pediatrician, while Father John, converging on the same plot, confronts the killer. Like many mystery writers working on Native American ground, Coel knows that the gaps between cultures are fertile ground for suspense. She also develops solid characters and a keen sense of place that keep this tale humming. Author tour. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In the tradition of Tony Hillerman and Jean Hager, Coel sets her heartwarming mystery series (The Ghost Walker) on the Wind River Arapaho Reservation in Wyoming and peoples it with caring but troubled and endearing characters. Father John O'Malley of St. Francis Mission has a few skeletons in his closet; a recovering alcoholic who experienced a passionate love for his high school sweetheart, Ellen, back in Boston, he now worries about the attraction he and Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden feel for each other. Vicky's feelings for Father John become unmistakable when Father Joseph Keenan, the elderly philosopher-priest assigned to St. Francis, is found murdered by a bullet obviously intended for Father John. Simultaneously, she must grapple with the arrival of Sharon David, a movie star convinced that she was adopted at birth from the reservation. For fans of Western mysteries, this is a sure bet. Recommended.ÄSusan A. Zappia, Maricopa Cty. Lib. Dist., Phoenix (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
It's an awful moment for Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden as the fifth in this Hillermanesque series (The Story Teller, 1998, etc.) gets underway. According to a radio bulletin, a priest from Wyoming's St. Francis Mission to the Wind River Indian Reservation has been shot to death. Vicky (nee Singing Bird) is certain the victim is Father John O'Malley, the mission pastor, with whom she's secretly but desperately in love. (He's secretly desperate, too.) Turns out, to her immense relief, that 70-ish Father Joseph, not hunkish Father John, was driving the mission pick-up. At first, Vicky'like everyone else, including Father John'assumes death by mistaken identity. He must have been the intended target, Father Joseph simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, Father Joseph had been at the mission a bare three weeks. Who could have worked up enough murderous hate for him in that short a period? But when Vicky learns that 35 years ago Father Joseph did a previous mission stint, she's forced to rethink. Mysterious things happened then'an inexplicable rise in Native American infant mortality, a couple of suspicious suicides'that seem connected to the mysterious things happening now. Vicky and Father John conduct separate but equal investigations. In the end, of course, rampaging villainy is brought to justice, and rambunctious passion kept in check. Tune in next time. Father O'Malley and Vicky hold their own as characters, but the mystery itself lacks substance, and Coel really needs to polish her action scenes.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
