Book Review: Wife Of Moon

Reviewed By: Shirley - RAM

Wife Of Moon     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Margaret Coel
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Native American
Series: Wind River Reservation Mysteries # 10

Don¹t be misled by comparisons of Coel to Hillerman. They are both good writers who write mysteries about Indians. Different tribes, different writing styles.

Coel spends much time on atmospheric description of weather and place. The descriptions are poetic, but this is not a fast moving story. Prepare to be patient, it¹s worth the wait. This story moves between 1907 and the present. The photography referred to in the story is based on a real photographer, Edward Curtis who attempted to document North American Indian tribes from the late 1800¹s till the early 1900¹s.

Where Hillerman¹s focus is on Navahos on the reservation today, Coel¹s protagonists are priest Father John O¹Malley and Vicky Holden, an Arapaho woman who left the area to become a lawyer and eventually returned to set up practice. Investigating a death and a disappearance, they connect the present happenings to photographs taken nearly a century ago. Violence and fear accelerate until O¹Malley and Vicky begin to put together the puzzle.

Shirley - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Shirley - RAM