The Silent Spirit

July 27, 2009
In Coel's absorbing if relatively sedate 14th Wind River mystery to feature Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden and Fr. John O'Malley (after 2008's The Girl with Braided Hair
), ex-con Kiki Wallowingbull goes to Los Angeles to learn more about the disappearance of his great-grandfather, Charlie, who like many Native Americans in the 1920s went to Hollywood to perform in western movies. Soon after returning to Wyoming's Wind River Reservation, Kiki's murdered. Father John, just back from a Rome sabbatical, seeks to reassure Kiki's grandfather that Kiki, fresh out of rehab, wasn't killed over drugs. Meanwhile, Vicky gets a desperate call from an Arapaho claiming to have killed someone in self-defense. Vicky avoids Father John and her intense feelings toward him until their separate investigations intersect and they join forces to uncover the truth. Series fans will be satisfied as well as primed for the next opportunity to follow this pair and their uncertain future. Author tour.

August 1, 2009
A search for answers to his grandfather's disappearance brings tragedy to a troubled man and his family.

After years of drug abuse, Kiki Wallowingbull claims to be clean, sober and determined to learn why his grandfather, one of the Arapahos and Shoshones who left the reservations in 1923 to make the first Western movie to cast Native Americans, never returned to his wife and child. When Kiki is found dead in the river, his grandfather begs Father John O'Malley, just back from a stint in Rome, to prove he hadn't gone back to drug dealing. Attorney Vicky Holden and Adam Lone Eagle, her partner in law and love, are supposed to be working on cases that can reap big profits for the tribes. Much to Adam's disquiet, however, Vicky's background in criminal law (The Drowning Man, 2006, etc.) makes her susceptible to a request from an unknown man who claims to have killed Kiki in self-defense. Vicky and Father John run into trouble when they cross the path of Kiki's former boss, a dealer with no compunction about attacking a priest. Undeterred, Father John searches among old tribal memories for clues, while Vicky follows Kiki's footsteps to Hollywood, where she discovers an affair with a movie star that might well provide a motive for murder.

Another of Coel's engaging blends of history, mystery, sexual tension and present-day life on the reservation.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2009
Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John OMalley again work together in this excellent addition to Coels long-running series. Kiki Wallowingbull goes to California to determine why his great-grandfather never returned to his family on their Wyoming reservation after going to Hollywood in the 1920s to help promote a silent film. Shortly after returning home from his own trip to California, Kiki is found dead. The authorities believe he died in a drug deal gone bad, but Father John has doubts, and when Vicky receives phone calls from someone who claims to have killed Kiki, the pair begins to investigate in earnest. Told both in the present and in flashbacks to the making of the movie that drew Kikis great-grandfather to Hollywood, the story mixes murder with daily life on todays reservations and offers a fascinating glimpse of the film business of the 1920s, when Native Americans worked as extras in westerns. A good choice for fans of Tony Hillerman.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)