The Girl with Braided Hair

July 16, 2007
Coel’s 13th Wind River mystery (after 2006’s The Drowning Man
) is far more engaging than its bland title might suggest. The discovery of skeletal remains still bearing a long dark braid of hair opens deep wounds among the Native Americans who live on Wyoming’s Wind River reservation. Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden’s efforts to identify the woman, apparently a murder victim, cause tension with her love interest and law partner, Adam Lone Eagle, driving her to enlist the aid of their friend Fr. John O’Malley. A rash of threats and the murder of a woman Vicky questioned confirms her suspicions that members of a 1970s activist group, the American Indian Movement, are still on the rez and somehow involved in all the happenings. Bringing her trademark western flair to nonstop action, Coel keeps danger hanging over Vicky’s head as she follows a trail of clues to their startling conclusion.

August 1, 2007
On the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, an animal unearths a womans remains. The victim, it turns out, was murdered in 1973, when Native American activists came to the reservation. A group of reservation women ask attorney Vicki Holden to press the sheriff to find the killer. Immediately, threats are leveled against Vicki and her friend Father John OMalley. The duo races to find the killer before the killer gets them. In this thirteenth Vicki Holden mystery, Coel continues to combine full-bodied characters, vivid landscapes, and snappy dialogue, and she builds suspense effectively, in terms of both resolving the main plot and answering the question of whether Father OMalley will be reassigned to Rome. This series, with its expert use of western settings and Native American themes, remains among the best read-alikes for Tony Hillerman fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)