Man Found Dead in Park by Margaret Coel

 

First Line: Catherine tapped the brakes and turned into a street filled with SUVs, black-and-white police cars, yellow and red lights flashing, and an ambulance idling on the side.

 

Journalist Catherine McLeod finds herself investigating the death of a man found in a park in a Native American neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. No one in the neighborhood is talking to the police, but-- due to McLeod's Arapaho heritage-- she does find someone willing to say just enough to get her started.

 

What she doesn't realize is that she's going to find herself in Wyoming's Wind River Reservation and in conflict with Mexican drug cartels.

 

~

 

I've been slowly savoring Margaret Coel's Wind River mysteries featuring Catholic priest John O'Malley and Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden and felt it was high time I met journalist Catherine McLeod in the novella, Man Found Dead in Park. I'm glad I did. Coel is a magician when it comes to blending story, character, landscape, and culture into a reading experience that I simply can't resist.

The two main characters in this novella are McLeod, an investigative journalist in Denver. An Arapaho, Catherine was raised by a white couple from the age of five, and she wants to learn more about her heritage. Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden uses the white man's laws to help her people. Both are strong, sympathetic characters who make a good team working to solve a mystery involving how Mexican drug cartels have moved onto reservations.

If you're already a fan of Margaret Coel's writing, you'll enjoy this fast-paced story. If you're new to this writer, you'll find Man Found Dead in Park to be an excellent stepping stone to both the mysteries featuring Catherine McLeod and the Wind River series with Holden and O'Malley. You have some excellent reading ahead of you, especially if you enjoy writers like Tony Hillerman.

Man Found Dead in Park by Margaret Coel

ASIN: B07FR2JPLJ

A.S.A.P. Publishing © 2018

eBook, 165 pages

 

Novella

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Spirit Woman by Margaret Coel

First Line: Father John O'Malley pulled up the collar of his jacket and dipped the brim of his cowboy hat against the hard wind whirling little pellets of snow into the air.

Legend has it that Sacajawea, the Native American woman who helped guide the Lewis and Clark expedition through the vast American wilderness, is buried on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. A college professor and longtime friend of Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden has disappeared while searching for documented evidence of that legend. 

Holden and Father John O'Malley become increasingly concerned when her missing friend is linked to another female historian who also vanished on the reservation while researching Sacajawea twenty years ago. The answer to these disappearances may lie in the pages of Sacajawea's hidden memoirs, but someone is willing to do anything to ensure they're never found.

~

It's been much too long since I've picked up one of Margaret Coel's Wind River mysteries, and The Spirit Woman was such a pleasure to read. Coel always seems to find a fascinating aspect of Native American or Western history to build her stories upon, and this time it's Sacajawea, the remarkable teenager who, with a baby strapped to her back and dealing with an abusive husband, guided Lewis and Clark. Proving that Sacajawea survived and died in old age on the Wind River Reservation among her people would be a coup for any historian, but it can't be just any proof. Historians want written documented evidence. Oral histories will not do. Rumors of Sacajawea's written memoirs are a magnet for both female college professors who have disappeared on the reservation.

The subject of abusive relationships is a major theme in The Spirit Woman, but for those readers who may find the subject too distressing, rest assured that Coel never resorts to any sort of graphic violence. It's what living under such circumstances can do to women that is the author's focus, and she deftly weaves this into the story.  

The whodunit was easy for me to deduce, but then I don't read mysteries just to see how good I am at solving crimes. For me, characterization and setting mean even more, and Coel's series has both in abundance. There's the attraction between Father John O'Malley and attorney Vicky Holden. There's how residents of the reservation react to a historian nosing around and asking questions. But even more important, there's the fact that O'Malley's boss has decided that it's time for O'Malley to move on to a different parish. His replacement shows up almost before O'Malley has a chance to hang up the phone. John is highly respected on the reservation. How are the people going to react to his leaving? The actions of the elders should make you smile. 

One of the things that kept me glued to the pages was trying to figure out how O'Malley got to stay. Let's face it... this is the sixth book in a twenty-book series, and they're all called Wind River mysteries. Father John has to stay, right? I was happy to see that my solution wasn't the right one (not that it was violent or anything, just wrong).

This is a series to savor, particularly if you love intelligent writing. The characters and the setting sing. What readers can learn about reservation life and the West is fascinating. If you haven't sampled the Wind River mysteries, I highly recommend them. Due to character development, I would suggest that you begin with the first book, The Eagle Catcher. It will be the start of a beautiful reading relationship.

The Spirit Woman by Margaret Coel

ISBN: 0425180905

Berkley Prime Crime © 2000

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

 

Native American mystery, #6 Wind River mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Paperback Swap

The Lost Bird by Margaret Coel

First Line: He was late.

There's a first time for everything. Father John O'Malley finally has an assistant who actually requested to be there with him on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Father Joseph had been there several years ago, and most of the Arapaho remember him well. But with the good comes the unthinkable: Father John is shot dead, and since he was driving Father John's old Toyota, Father John is convinced that the bullet was meant for him. 

Consumed with anger and guilt, he is determined to find the killer, and along the way he teams up with Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden. When they discover that Father John had ties to one of Vicky's cases, they know there's no time to waste.

If you love crime fiction with a strong Native American element and you haven't read Margaret Coel's Wind River mysteries, I urge you to get your hands on them and start reading. (They're best read in order, so begin with The Eagle Catcher.) I learned about them while attending an author event in which Coel appeared with William Kent Krueger. I got the first book in the series, and I haven't looked back since.

Coel is a wonderful stylist. The Wyoming landscape, the history of the area, the characters, the mysteries, and the Arapaho culture are all woven into seamless narratives that are difficult to put down. Everything she writes has such a ring of truth to it, and so much heart that readers learn the Arapaho Way whether or not they realize it. 

At the heart of The Lost Bird is a heartbreaking subject that's dealt with honestly and with great sensitivity. As the story unfolds so do more facets of the characters' lives. Father John and Vicky both have emotional revelations to deal with, and Father John also has a surprise visit from his niece Megan which will also cause him great soul-searching. 

There are always many layers to these Wind River mysteries, but Coel is the type of writer who keeps a smooth pace while never wasting a word. It's taking me a while to get through this series, but that's my plan. I aim to savor each and every book... and to mourn when I finally read the last installment, Winter's Child.
 

The Lost Bird by Margaret Coel

ISBN: 0425170306

Berkley © 2000

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Native American Mystery, #5 Wind River Reservation mystery

Rating: A

Source: Paperback Swap 


 

The Dream Stalker by Margaret Coel

First Line: Rain pattered against the window and broke through the quiet in the study.

Once again the vivid setting of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming provides a dramatic backdrop for Father John O'Malley and Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden to solve a crime of greed and false promises.

A big power company from back East has come to the Wind River Reservation promising lots of jobs and lots of money if the Arapaho will agree to store nuclear waste on their land. This company has had geological surveys done to prove that the site they have chosen is completely safe. To an impoverished people, most of whom live from day to day, the promise of safety and the lure of jobs is irresistible. But to Father John O'Malley of the St. Francis Jesuit Mission and to Vicky Holden, the dangers far outweigh the benefits. Trouble is, someone is quite willing to silence anyone who opposes the storage dump.

Margaret Coel has a plot that immediately raises my hackles. If nuclear waste needs to be taken care of, it needs to be taken care of where it was created, not shipped off "out in the middle of nowhere" for other people to deal with. Same thing goes for junked electronics, or any other waste created by society anywhere around the world. This program of avoidance is rife with dangers, and Coel deals with them in fine fashion.

Once again it's Father John and Vicky who bring the story to life. Although the two are attracted to each other, The Dream Stalker doesn't revolve around that one fact. Father John is dealing with yet another new priest sent to help him, and he's learning that what is to him a place of redemption and peace isn't thought of in the same light by the Church hierarchy. The constant struggle to keep the mission monetarily afloat adds an immediacy to the book as well.

What adds "zing" is the very real sense of danger to Vicky Holden, who refuses to be silent about the nuclear waste storage facility. The debate has brought the media and environmentalists into an already fraught situation, and Coel kept me worrying about Vicky. There is no safe place for the Arapaho lawyer-- even among her own people.

I came to this series late, but I'm enjoying every minute of Coel's plots, setting, and characters. Bring on the next book!
 

The Dream Stalker by Margaret Coel

ISBN: 9780425165331

Berkley Prime Crime © 1998

Mass Market Paperback, 272 pages

Native American Mystery, #3 Wind River Reservation mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Paperback Swap