Enjoyable listen to this Margaret Coel mystery involving Father John and lawyer Vicki Holden. This story goes back and forth in time. There was once a photographer sent to the West by the Smithsonian Institute to take photos of the native Indians/native Americans in their habitat. Edward Curtis may have used a lack of judgment in asking the Arapaho and Shoshone of the reservation to stage a reenactment of an Indian raid on a village. They were blanks in their guns but one woman, daughter of a chief, winds up dead. So, on the one hand, we are following the story of Jessie, a young Arapaho who has signed on to assist Curtis, secretly in love with the girl who marries a white man. The man brings his wife and daughter to be in the photos. Three natives are blamed for the murder.This story alternates with a present day story where a young priest assigned to the mission (born wealthy, Princeton educated) is getting the Senator to make a visit to the reservation and the mission prior to announcing whether he will seek the nomination for the presidency.Of course both of these stories are interconnected and there are bodies dropping. I enjoy this series. And at least in this one she was not quite so much on her spousal abuse platform, as she is in some books. And this is one series that I definitely haven't read in order.
Margaret Coel writes a series of mysteries set in the Arapaho's Wind River reservation in Wyoming. They are reminiscent of Tony Hillerman, and I think just as good.Coel's detectives are an Arapaho woman lawyer and a white Jesuit priest who lives on the reservation. They are both deeply concerned about Native American rights and aware that the police and white residents of the nearby towns will automatically assume that the perpetrator of any crime is a Native American. The characters are well drawn and illustrate continuing problems for Native Americans. I chose to highlight this book because it looks back at crimes committed a hundred years ago. (Spoiler alert if you read further.)White men married Native women to get their land, and apparently there are many cases of those women mysteriously dying, but none of the husbands were prosecuted. Learning about that was awful, but worth reading the book for.
Boulder resident, Margaret Coel really knowsher Indian history and culture and brings it out in these mysteries. This one goes back to 1807 where a well known photographer (using glass plates) is recording the traditions of the tribes. One picture connects the grandfather of a Wyoming senator striving for the presidency in a crime in order to keep his land. Present day Arapahoes are looking for justice. And as usual Father John and lawyer Vicky Holden are involved.As with all the rest of this series, an enjoyable read.
—Betty410
There is a skill that Margaret Coel has that is priceless; she has the ability, at times, to leave the reader with a great sense of loss. I'm not talking about that loss that one sometimes gets when a book has become so much a part of your life that the real world becomes disappointing... Margaret Coel creates another sense of loss. There is that sense of having lost almost everything through greed and injustice and all you have is your dignity. It must be like that at times for the American Indians. Their world was taken away, they were treated like subhumans, abused and victimised. Some of them lost hope and became alcoholics, shiftless, aimless.... others, somehow, held on to their dignity and survive.A hundred years ago, during a reconstructed attack on an Arapaho village a murder is committed. Three men are accused and executed. Today an Arapaho woman has been murdered and another woman, the curator of a museum, has gone missing. Out of this scenario Margaret Coel has created a tale that ranks amongst her very best.
—Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk
I've enjoyed her books and enjoyed hearing her speak. The romance that can never be is always a sad part of the story. Using Curtis' photographs as a basis for the story was a good idea. He did photograph extensively and there are miscellaneous plates out there and he could have photographed a murder. People weren't used to being photographed so even though the original murderer knew that Curtis was photographing, he didn't realize what the picture could reveal. Old sins can follow families through the years.
—Sandra Munger
