The Ghost Walker by Margaret Coel

First Line: Snow had fallen all day, and now the open spaces of Wind River Reservation lay under deep powder.

In this second book in Margaret Coel's Wind River mystery series, it's winter in Wyoming and cold enough to freeze you all the way down to your bones. When Father John O'Malley's old truck breaks down on a lonely road during a snowstorm, he has to walk for help. He finds a body dumped in a ditch and shortly thereafter is given a lift by a nervous, evasive stranger. When the police arrive, the body has disappeared, and the Arapaho begin talking about ghost walkers-- spirits that cause trouble until their bodies are given a proper burial. 

And trouble begins almost immediately. O'Malley is told that his superiors have decided to sell his small reservation church to some sort of investment group. O'Malley has parishioners who need help now, and as he does his best to provide what is needed, he's sick at heart wondering what will happen to these people if the church is indeed sold. Then a troubled young Arapaho disappears, his former girlfriend is murdered, and he learns that friend and lawyer Vicky Holden's daughter is back in the area. Father John and Vicky need to find out what's going on fast before any more people die.

Margaret Coel's writing puts you right on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming-- and that winter wind cuts right through you while you try to piece together all the clues in a very satisfying mystery. While the setting is beautifully rendered, what holds all the pieces of location and investigation together is her superb cast of characters. 

Father John O'Malley is a real, flawed human being who cares deeply for the Arapaho on the Wind River Reservation. He has taken the time and trouble to learn their history and their customs, and as a result his parishioners have learned to trust and value him as an important part of their lives. His friend Vicky Holden is a bit prickly and tends to be very reserved, but she's had a tough row to hoe-- escaping from an abusive alcoholic husband and working hard to earn a law degree. Now she's back on the reservation to help her people, but she straddles both worlds and conflicts can arise-- like the sudden reappearance of her daughter, who resents Vicky for leaving her father and making her own way in the world.

All the characters play against each other very well as the various threads of the plot begin to mesh together. Thankfully Coel adds welcome touches of humor to all the serious goings on of the plot, letting us watch the quick-thinking priest wheel and deal to get the people on the reservation the things they so desperately need. Especially humorous is the scene in which O'Malley cuts a deal with a car salesman.

Equally important amongst the murders, the setting, and the characters are the glimpses Coel gives us into Arapaho culture:

"Whites'll say Lester's my brother's grandson."

Father John gave a nod of understanding. There was no concept of aunt, uncle, or cousin on the reservation. Your brother's child was your child. Thomas and Mardell had no children of their own, but they were not childless.

It's a concept other cultures would do well to take to heart. 

This is only the second book I've read in this series, but the further I get into it, the deeper I fall. Margaret Coel knows how to write a feast for both mind and heart.
 

The Ghost Walker by Margaret Coel

ISBN: 9780425159613

Berkley Prime Crime © 1997

Mass Market Paperback, 256 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #2 Wind River mystery

Rating: A

Source: Paperback Swap 

The Eagle Catcher by Margaret Coel

First Line: A cold gust of wind whipped across the Ethete powwow grounds and flapped at Father John Aloysius O'Malley's windbreaker.

It's time for the big Ethete powwow on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, but when the Arapaho tribal chairman is found murdered in his tepee there on the grounds, the entire tribe is in shock. Father John O'Malley, pastor of the St. Francis Mission on the reservation and friend of the dead man is also in shock. All the evidence points to the chairman's nephew, but Father John and Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden believe the evidence is pointing at the wrong person. The trail these two follow leads all over the reservation, into fraudulent oil and land deals and-- eventually-- all the way back into the past. What they begin to piece together puts them right in the cross hairs of a determined killer.

If you're like me and enjoy mysteries that are permeated with Native American culture and history, put Margaret Coel's Wind River mysteries on your reading list. This first book in the series is a strong blend of well-plotted mystery, a setting that should be listed in the cast of characters, Arapaho culture and history, and two strong, interesting leads in Father John O'Malley and Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden.

"In the distance, the brown humps of the Wind River Mountains rode against the sky like a herd of giant buffalo."

The high plains setting of the Wind River Reservation plays an important role in the book, especially if you keep in mind the fact that Father John and Vicky are a thirty to forty-five minute drive from anywhere. It's remote, it's beautiful, and its weather can turn on a dime.

Father John O'Malley taught history in Jesuit prep schools back East until his drinking spiraled out of control and he was sent in disgrace from Boston to the Wind River Reservation. To his surprise, he fell in love with the landscape and with the Arapaho people. Vicky Holden was the wife of a drunk and abusive man. She divorced him and took the long lonely road to law school. Vicky is much more prickly than Father John, but both are strong, intelligent, and just the kind of characters to sustain a long series.

I was swept up by the story very quickly, and I appreciated how Coel skillfully wove present-day Arapaho issues into the narrative. Although I did identify one of the villains of the piece very early on, the killer came as a total surprise. The reveal should not have been so amazing, however, because there were clues all along the trail-- proof of how the story made me put aside my deductive skills.

If there was anything I didn't like about the book, it was the fact that the story was over much too soon and left me with a craving for more-- in particular, more of Vicky Holden. Father John received the lion's share of the attention in this book, and Vicky is such a fascinating character that I'm dying to learn more about her.

Good mystery, evocative setting, Native American culture and history, and two characters with whom I need to become better acquainted. I'm definitely returning to Wind River!

The Eagle Catcher by Margaret Coel

ISBN: 9780425154632

Berkley Prime Crime © 1996

Mass Market Paperback, 256 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #1 Wind River mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Paperback Swap