From Publishers Weekly
Now that Jesuit Father John O'Malley has just been reassigned from the Wyoming reservation he's called home for the last eight years, his undeclared love affair with Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden seems finally over in the sixth installment in this well-regarded series. Besides, Vicky's back with ex-husband Ben, an abusive alcoholic who says he's changed. Then Vicky receives a visit from old friend Laura Simmons, a historian who's convinced that the memoirs of 19th-century Shoshone heroine Sacajawea are stashed somewhere on the reservation. Years before, another female historian disappeared while searching for those memoirs, and within days of her arrival Laura is missing, too. Possibly Laura's disappearance has something to do with the arrival of her abusive boyfriend, but as Vicky and Father John investigate, they become convinced that someone on the reservation has come between Laura and the memoirsAif they exist. Coel stretches to form links between the "fragile" past and the shifting present, as Vicky realizes that she, Laura and various secondary characters are all daughters of SacajaweaAbattered women struggling to survive their battering men. It's an arresting theme, but overstated here, as the male characters are almost uniformly controlling, alcoholic, philandering failures who insist in falsettos that their victims understand their "rage." Readers will be engrossed in the expertly crafted suspense, but may wonder how much longer the passion between Father John and Vicky can smolder. 6-city author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
A historical controversy centered on the 19th-century Shoshone heroine Sacajawea is the catalyst for murder on the reservation in The Spirit Woman, the sixth in Coel's mystery series featuring Jesuit priest John O'Malley and set on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming. The victims of two murders, one 20 years in the past, are both history professors who were sifting through legends and rumors in attempts to locate the mythical memoirs of Lewis and Clark's most famous Indian guide. Father O'Malley and lawyer Vickie Holden are also confronting their own personal upheavals, and their roles seem more passive in the solving of this puzzle than in previous books in the series. While not Coel's best, this offers another solid reading by Stephanie Brush and will be in demand by the author's legion of fans. Recommended.
Kristen L. Smith, Loras Coll. Lib., Dubuque, IACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
