The Girl with Braided Hair

As usual, Coel has written a tightly woven mystery with a good dose of history lesson included. This one also leaves those of us who have read the entire series with quite another mystery at the end. What will happen at the Mission now?

This work is set on an Indian Reservation in Wyoming as are the earlier books in the series. The author does her normal excellent job of a mystery with the two same two major protagonists, a female Indian lawyer and a Catholic priest. In this book there are flashbacks to the life of the victim and the 1970s American Indian Movement, AIM. While the two heroes handle their usual personal issues, series fans and newcomers will both enjoy this book. In the end, the reader is left wondering if Father John is going to be assigned elsewhere, which would represent a major turning point for future books in the series. It is well worth the read as it is comparable to Hillerman but still different.

Margaret Coel continues her outstanding series by referencing several historical Indian events, weaving them into current day attitudes and consequences. Her long running characters of Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley continue to fascinate. The combination of character development, action, and mystery is a winner! I eagerly await her next book.

Margaret Coel literally turns over new earth in this 13th adventure involving Jesuit priest Father John O'Malley and Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden. The bones of a murdered woman are uncovered by accident on the Wind River Reservation, a young girl in her twenties with a single long braid. Tribal elders call in Father John to bless the body, but local police dismiss it as a very cold case, not likely to be solved. Older Arapaho women tell Vicky they want justice for the murdered woman, not stonewalling. Forensics date the murder to 1973, when members of the American Indian Movement occupied Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Washington and later took over the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, site of the last massacre of Indians by U.S. soldiers. Some AIM leaders avoided arrest by scattering to several reservations, blending with local populations. A few came to Wind River, including young Liz Plenty Horses and her month-old daughter. Only Father John and Vicky can dig into tribal memories to come up with Liz's name and begin to trace her final movements. But they dig too deeply and stir up a killer who still lives on the reservation, a killer who starts by intimidating witnesses, kills another witness, and comes after Vicky. Besides well-developed suspense over the killer's near misses of Vicky, Margaret Coel takes us into the viewpoint of Liz in several tautly-drawn scenes. Our foreknowledge in no way dampens our fear as her story edges toward a bitter climax. History, mystery, threats to two of the favorite characters in crime writing--it's all here in a can't-put-it-down novel of exquisite suspense that builds to a shattering conclusion.

Near the Wind River Reservation where the Arapaho tribe lives, a skeleton is unearthed in an out of the way ravine. At first glance the authorities believe it is an Indian woman because of her long dark braid and the clothing that was from the 1970's; a time when AIM was stirring up trouble with the whites and against Indians who didn't agree with them. Records don't show any woman missing from the tribe during that time period. Several Indian women asks attorney Vicky Holden to inquire when the police will find out her name so they can release the body and give her a proper burial. Vicky is now in practice with Adam Lone Eagle normally taking on clients with major cases that impact many people and issues. However, this death in which the woman was tied up with all her bones broken and a bullet wound to the head affects her deeply and she starts investigating as does Father John the catholic priest whose mission as on the reservation. Vicky receives threatening notes and is shot at; she realizes the killer is hiding on the rez behind people afraid to give him away. What Tony Hillman has done for the Navaho, Margaret Coel has done for the Arapaho. There are two storylines running in alternating chapters; the first is the woman whose bones were found in the present goes on the run because AIM leaders thought she was an FBI snitch who got another leader killed. The second begins with finding out in the present who killed her. Both tales are exciting and filled with suspense and danger. This is a must read for anyone who loves a great mystery. Harriet Klausner