Wife Of Moon [Hardcover]

Bestseller Coel surpasses her own high standard in her 10th whodunit (after 2003's Killing Raven) to feature Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley. An exhibit of Edward S. Curtis's early 20th-century Plains Indians photographs has attracted a lot of visitors to the museum of St. Francis Mission on the Wind River Reservation. When someone shoots to death a descendant of a tribal chief shown in one of the Curtis pictures and the museum's new curator disappears, there could be a connection to a murder committed in 1907 on the rez. Meanwhile, Father John's assistant is preparing the mission for a visit from Wyoming senator Jaime Evans, who may soon be announcing his presidential candidacy and who proves to have a family link to the tell-tale Curtis photo. Handsome attorney Adam Lone Eagle steps from the shadows and resumes his pursuit of Vicky, who is still trying to come to terms with her fatal attraction to Father John. Stir in a crazed ex-CIA operative, and you have a hint of what awaits you in this action-filled page-turner. Coel draws readers into early Arapaho life as smoothly as she brings them into the sinister goings-on at present-day Wind River, masterfully blending authentic history with an ingenious plot.
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Adult/High School–The killing in 1907 of a tribal leader's daughter serves as the background for murders that take place on the present-day Arapaho Reservation. The earlier crime, the recent murder of the wife of the tribal council leader, and the disappearance of the newly appointed curator of the tribal museum all draw a common link from a picture in the museum's exhibit of Edward S. Curtis's early-20th-century photographs of Plains Indians. In this 10th title to feature Father John O'Malley and Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden, the two investigators work independently at first, but they eventually run into one another. While they are intent on finding the killer, their underlying unrequited love for one another intensifies the emotional atmosphere of the tale. In an action-driven ending, they pull together to solve all the parts of the plot's puzzle except their own troubled love. Idiosyncrasies, personal preferences, and physical attributes of characters seamlessly interweave people and plot in this stand-alone novel.–Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

The Wind River Reservation novels (this is the tenth) are one of the best Native American mystery series, a genre that boasts the thoughtful atmospherics of Tony Hillerman, David Thurlo and Aimee Thurlo, and Kirk Mitchell. Coel performs a very successful graft of history (based, as an author's note explains, on the photographs of American Indians taken by Edward S. Curtis from the 1890s through the 1920s) onto a contemporary murder. The quiet center of this absorbing mystery is series hero Father John O'Malley, a Verdi-loving Jesuit priest, still astounded by his relocation from the East to the reservation. The murder of the wife of a local power, T. J. Painted Horse, and the disappearance of the new curator of the museum housing the Curtis exhibit draw in both O'Malley and his longtime partner in crime solving, Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden. The plotting is sometimes a bit erratic, but the history-based crimes will hold readers. Connie Fletcher
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--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.