Buffalo Bill's Dead Now

July 9, 2012
In Coel’s solid 16th Wind River mystery (after 2010’s The Spider’s Web), attorney Vicky Holden and Catholic priest John O’Malley must sort through a tangle of greed, deception, and murder. While the star-crossed pair yearn vainly for each other, they also both love the Arapaho Indians, who need their advice and protection. The theft of important relics—the regalia that Chief Black Heart wore in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the late 19th century—on their way to the tribe’s museum is devastating to older people on Wyoming’s Wind River reservation, but Vicky and Father O’Malley discover not only that there are thieves who’d kill for collectible artifacts but also that some younger Indians lust after money more than their cultural heritage. Like Tony Hillerman, Coel respects the traditional Native American worldview, and the setting and characterization are strong enough to compensate for some plotting lapses. Agent: Rick Henshaw.

August 15, 2012
A lawyer and a priest must solve yet another murder on the Wind River Reservation. The Arapaho Museum is about to mount a big exhibition of artifacts featuring Chief Black Heart's regalia, which is being returned after being discovered hidden in a vault in Germany. Black Heart and his adopted son, Sonny Yellow Robe, were in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Germany when Black Heart's regalia vanished along with Sonny. Black Heart's family blamed Sonny for the theft, and the feud continues over a hundred years later. When the artifacts go missing once more, stolen from the local airport, Native American lawyer Vicki Holden (The Spider's Web, 2010, etc.) has the feeling that her client Trevor Pratt, who had arranged their return, knows who took them. But before she can confront Pratt, she and her friend Father John O'Malley find him murdered at his ranch, and they're almost run off the road by someone fleeing the scene. Then the museum curator is kidnapped, leaving the FBI and local law enforcement to search for him and the murderers. Research shows that Pratt is a former artifact thief who changed his name, invented a new persona and apparently changed his ways. Vicki's former law partner and lover, Adam Lone Eagle, has returned eager to resume their relationship, but she's consumed by her need to solve the case and is more than a little in love with Father John. An interesting combination of historical information on Buffalo Bill's wildly popular show and modern-day mystery.

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September 1, 2012

Chief Black Heart toured Europe with Buffalo Bill back in the 1800s, but only now are his belongings coming home to Colorado. When the artifacts go missing, Father John O'Malley and Vicki Holden look for the thieves in this 16th entry in an award-winning series (after The Spider's Web). [See Prepub Alert, 7/2/12.]

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2012
In a thriving market for Native American artifacts, the donation of Arapaho regalia from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show is a windfall for the Wind River Reservation Arapaho museum. But the artifacts are stolen before they can reach the museum. Then the donor, Trevor Pratt, a man who once served time for trafficking in stolen artifacts, is murdered; the museum is broken into; and its director is kidnapped. Attorney Vicky Holden, who represented Pratt, thinks he was behind the theft, while Father John O'Malley from the mission checks out a long-standing blood feud between two Arapaho families over the artifacts. Meanwhile, high-powered attorney Adam Lone Eagle, Vicky's former law partner and lover, returns to town hoping to renew their relationship, and the mutual attraction between the pair reaches a new level. In the sixteenth entry in her Wind River series, Coel moves the narration between the present and 1890s Berlina stop on Buffalo Bill's European tourfolding in Native American history and advancing the relationships of her appealing key characters. A fine mystery for Tony Hillerman fans and beyond.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)