Wife of Moon

Wind River Reservation #10

by Margaret Coel

In Margaret Coel's latest Wind River Reservation mystery, an atrocity from the past has resurfaced with a vengeance.

Two murders-a century apart-are linked to photographs taken of the Arapahos on the reservation in 1907, currently on display at St. Francis' Mission. As they begin their investigation, Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden unearth secrets best left buried.

Genres: Mystery, Native American, Fiction, Westerns, Mystery Thriller, Historical Fiction, Detective

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Margaret Coel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of the acclaimed novels featuring Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden, as well as several works of nonfiction. Originally a historian by trade, she is considered an expert on the Arapaho Indians.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Father John and Vicky join forces to solve a disappearance and a murder.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Arapaho mysteries with Father John and Vicky have long been a go-to author. I knew I missed one or two books. This is the first time I have read this book and it did not disappoint. Father John has an assistant and then the curator of the Arapaho museum is missing. The Wyoming state senator is planning on visiting the Reservation as he announces he is running for President. The Indians recognize the Indians in the 1907 recreation of an Arapaho village and the death of the last chief daughter. Descendant of the chief are being killed and someone is looking for an object on the Reservation. The twists and turns will hold your attention as Vicky and Father John look for answers to prevent more killings. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK AND SERIES.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting comparing what may have happened in 1907 with current time. You can almost see and feel the poverty and pride of Father John’s parishioners. With some excellent twists, this is another who dunit.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another mystery in the Wind River series. The early part of the book is well done and one can see how the author matured over time. My main problem with this one was that the most of the mystery was summed up on a brief conversation between the protagonists. This may be due to the constraints on the length of the book coupled with the difficulty for writing two separate stories - present day, and 1907.

This book is below average for this author. It was not terrible, it was just not up to her normal level. I enjoy her writing and look forward to reading more. This particular book seemed like the author had a great idea but was unable to manage the complexity of the format she chose. Any one who is a fan of the series should read this, but not expect that it will be good as some of her other books.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid entry in the Wind River Reservation series...murders, a century apart, and 100 year old photos, carry clues bringing troubles that have to be confronted by both Father John and Vickie Holden...good stuff!!!

[Harriet · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the better books in this series!

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is one of the better ones in the series. I don't know if I agree with the conclusion, but I am a lot more vindictive.

[Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read in this series. The ending was a bit less than satisfying but the good guys can't always win.

[MaryJo Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can count on a good mystery if you decide to read Coel's Wind River Reservation series.
The plots are well thought out and feasible. The northern plains were the reservation is located is a harsh land, but also beautiful in a way the author describes well.
The characters are realistic. Father John loves the people he ministers to as family, while dealing with his own weaknesses and finding the strength from the God he believes in to get him through the challenges of both.
Vicky Holden is a very unique woman, accomplishing what few of her Arapaho heritage have and at a cost. She too is totally committed to her people as well as her profession.
The 10th in this series is a story that does a good job weaving a tragic injustice of the past with events of the present. Would it have been better to leave the past alone? Father John begins to think so when more people die because they know the truth.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in 2011, so I won't write a review until I read it again. As I remember, this wasn't one of my favorites.

[Cat. · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, this played completely to my interests: Western history, photography, spies...

Second of all, I'm heartily sick of Vicki and Father John's emotional turmoil. They need to move on with their lives. The whole series has become completely contrived. The characters are stagnating.

Thus spake I.

But anyway, the plot is good: Edward Curtis, famous "Indian photographer" staged a battle in 1907, an attack on an Arapahoe village, in order to document history. In the course of the mock battle, the Indian wife of a white rancher was shot. Subsequently, two of the Arapahoe men pretending to attack the village were hanged.

Fast-forward nearly 100 years. A close high-school friend of Vicki's is under suspicion of murdering his wife. A Cheney-esque local rancher--the descendant of that same white rancher whose wife was killed in 1907--is trying to make political hay by appearing at the Mission. The Mission's museum director has disappeared, and her creepy former-CIA agent husband is creeping around looking for her. Of course, all of these things are connected (because this is a mystery, remember).

The outcome is interesting. I mean, it's fairly obvious what happened in 1907, though the motives don't become clear until late in the book. It's quite clear that, once again, the new assistant at the Mission is unsuitable. And it's becoming imperative that either Father John and Vicki need to have sex, or put more than 10 miles of distance between themselves. They won't do the former, and she's tried the latter. It's his turn to go somewhere else, although it may be too late to save the series at this point.

Oh, well. I think this is the latest: I'm caught up! Until next month when the newest installment arrives in stores.

[Larry Molter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reading these books in order, and I just finished this one. I'm not going to review the book, but, rather, I'd just like to say that Margaret Coel's Wind River books are like comfort food for me. I find that I have to read another to settle down after reading a gritty C. J. Box Pickett book, or a political novel, or whatever. It's much like when I had to read Janet Evanovich after digesting a few Spensers or Cormoran Strikes (JK Rowling's private eye). I like detective mysteries.

But, and this is important to me as well, Coel depicts the supporting law enforcement agencies with respect. So many authors of Native American (and game warden) mysteries depict the local sheriffs and FBI agents as either non-caring idiots or complete, over-the-top stereotypes. Not so with Coel. The FBI agent understands the native culture, although he is bound by Federal guidelines. He is not a macho buffoon. Same for the Tribal Police officers and sheriff (Is Sheriff Banner Tribal or local?).

At first I was uncertain I would like her whole premise of a Jesuit priest solving mysteries on the reservation. So much of the Navajo (yes, I know, Wind River is Arapaho) culture was destroyed by the missionaries in the late 1800's. And being non-theistic, I hoped that there would not be a lot of Christianity displayed in the stories. Coel does a wonderful job of mixing the two spiritualities without an overdose of organized religion. Needless to say, I don't mind that a priest is the major player. It all blends perfectly.

[Jan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable listen to this Margaret Coel mystery involving Father John and lawyer Vicki Holden.

This story goes back and forth in time. There was once a photographer sent to the West by the Smithsonian Institute to take photos of the native Indians/native Americans in their habitat. Edward Curtis may have used a lack of judgment in asking the Arapaho and Shoshone of the reservation to stage a reenactment of an Indian raid on a village. They were blanks in their guns but one woman, daughter of a chief, winds up dead.

So, on the one hand, we are following the story of Jessie, a young Arapaho who has signed on to assist Curtis, secretly in love with the girl who marries a white man. The man brings his wife and daughter to be in the photos. Three natives are blamed for the murder.

This story alternates with a present day story where a young priest assigned to the mission (born wealthy, Princeton educated) is getting the Senator to make a visit to the reservation and the mission prior to announcing whether he will seek the nomination for the presidency.

Of course both of these stories are interconnected and there are bodies dropping.

I enjoy this series. And at least in this one she was not quite so much on her spousal abuse platform, as she is in some books. And this is one series that I definitely haven't read in order.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good mystery in this series. The story starts with a scene from the past and then shifts to events in the present. A man's wife is killed and it is thought he did it. He professes innocence and hires Vicky Holden to defend him. As she looks into the case she is drawn deeper into the mystery.
The mission has opened a museum and has a showing of famous photos from a famous western photographer. The curator goes missing as the same time as the wife's death. Father John looks into it. They are trying to raise funds for the mission and have asked a Senator to come to the reservation for a visit. He is thinking about running for president and figures it would look good to make an appearance. His ancestors are.linked to the tribe and it is this link that is causing all the problems.
There are some old photos that may have shown are murder and the curator and others are looking for them for different reasons. The curator's husband is looking for her also and is not a nice person. Everything is connected and Father John and Vicky are right in the middle of it all. The story describes some of the injustices done to.the plains tribes.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a skill that Margaret Coel has that is priceless; she has the ability, at times, to leave the reader with a great sense of loss. I'm not talking about that loss that one sometimes gets when a book has become so much a part of your life that the real world becomes disappointing... Margaret Coel creates another sense of loss. There is that sense of having lost almost everything through greed and injustice and all you have is your dignity. It must be like that at times for the American Indians. Their world was taken away, they were treated like subhumans, abused and victimised. Some of them lost hope and became alcoholics, shiftless, aimless.... others, somehow, held on to their dignity and survive.
A hundred years ago, during a reconstructed attack on an Arapaho village a murder is committed. Three men are accused and executed. Today an Arapaho woman has been murdered and another woman, the curator of a museum, has gone missing. Out of this scenario Margaret Coel has created a tale that ranks amongst her very best.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book in the Wind River Reservation series of mysteries. (and I must say I am prejudice and love this series of mysteries)
This one revolves around a visit made by the photographer Edward Curtis to the reservation in the early 1900's. He did in fact visit the reservation and this book builds on the real life event.
In this story a murder occurs during Curtis' visit. Some of Curtis' pictures are displayed at the museum on the reservation. One of the descendants of a person in Curtis' pictures is murdered and someone else is missing. Is all of this connected?
Of course, Father John and attorney, Vicki Holden, become involved.
I visited a display of Curtis' photography in Albuquerque with an Indian friend. I asked her what she felt about the pictures as I had heard some Indians did not like them as the photos were staged according to how Curtis thought they should have been. She said the pictures might not be historically accurate, but they were the only photographs they had of their ancestors.

[Carol Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Coel writes a series of mysteries set in the Arapaho's Wind River reservation in Wyoming. They are reminiscent of Tony Hillerman, and I think just as good.

Coel's detectives are an Arapaho woman lawyer and a white Jesuit priest who lives on the reservation. They are both deeply concerned about Native American rights and aware that the police and white residents of the nearby towns will automatically assume that the perpetrator of any crime is a Native American.

The characters are well drawn and illustrate continuing problems for Native Americans. I chose to highlight this book because it looks back at crimes committed a hundred years ago. (Spoiler alert if you read further.)

White men married Native women to get their land, and apparently there are many cases of those women mysteriously dying, but none of the husbands were prosecuted. Learning about that was awful, but worth reading the book for.

[Bill Plott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Wind River mystery and another set of high marks for Margaret Coel. Father John O'Malley has a new curator for the St. Francis Mission Arapaho museum, a highly-energetic woman named Christine Nelson. She has been able to bring in a collection of 1907 Arapaho photos by Edward S. Curtis, a noted chronicler of Native Americans. Father John also has a new assistant, Father Damien, who has lots of ideas for the mission. One of them is cozying up to a Wyoming U.S. senator who wants to run for president. Then, the wife of a local Indian activist is found with a bullet in the head, an apparent suicide but her husband T.J. becomes a murder suspect. Father John's friend, attorney Vicky Jordan, takes on T.J.'s case. Running parallel to these events is a separate story of the 1907 photo shoot which may have involved the covered-up murder of a chief's daughter who was married to a white man. Both storylines and their eventual dovetailing are typical of Coel's talented work.

[Brian Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent Wind River Reservation mystery. A memorable aspect for me was how the death of a tribal chief’s daughter in 1907 and deaths of a tribal leader and his wife almost 100 years later were both woven into the same mystery. The way that an Arapaho elder handled property in 1907 and the way that a 21st century Arapaho elder handled property in the 21st century resulted in building and healing the tribe each time. Probably just a story around the wise actions of the two tribal elders would have been great, but add Vicky Holden’s and Father John O’Malley’s thoughts, emotions and actions to these stories and the reader gets the whole context about each elder seeing through each of the difficult circumstances to find and fulfill true wisdom. Maybe more than 4 stars would make sense because the text includes 2 instances of cutting through emotion and unknowns to wise action to benefit many. That kind of dedication to others is not common in mystery novels.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was hard to follow. The constant shifts between the past and the present, and Father John and Vicky's stories. The book was too divided, shuffling around these separate stories that don't seem to have any unity. Many parts were left unresolved.

The photographer story was well written and compelling. The breadth of history behind that story left a profound impression that should have been explored in greater depth. Father John and Vicky were at their admirable best, but supporting characters were less developed. A couple of them used to be Vicky's trusted friends, yet there was no mention of them before now? But there was a genuine feel to Vicky's doubt of them, when she realized she didn't know them as well as she thought.

[Betty410 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boulder resident, Margaret Coel really knowsher Indian history and culture and brings it out in these mysteries. This one goes back to 1807 where a well known photographer (using glass plates) is recording the traditions of the tribes. One picture connects the grandfather of a Wyoming senator striving for the presidency in a crime in order to keep his land. Present day Arapahoes are looking for justice. And as usual Father John and lawyer Vicky Holden are involved.
As with all the rest of this series, an enjoyable read.

[Sandra Munger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed her books and enjoyed hearing her speak. The romance that can never be is always a sad part of the story. Using Curtis' photographs as a basis for the story was a good idea. He did photograph extensively and there are miscellaneous plates out there and he could have photographed a murder. People weren't used to being photographed so even though the original murderer knew that Curtis was photographing, he didn't realize what the picture could reveal. Old sins can follow families through the years.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two murders-a century apart-are linked to photographs Edward Curtis took of the Arapahos in 1907. Margaret Coel imagines Curtis left in a rush after inadvertently capturing the murder of the chief’s daughter on film. Although Curtis never printed the photos, it looks like someone else did, with terrible consequences. The mystery is set on Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation where an exhibit of Curtis photographs is on display.

I read this after seeing an exhibit of Curtis' extraordinary photographs on display at the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not my type of book. I get tired reading about those noble indians (now indigenous peoples) and the bad white folks. Just not my experience having grown up in an area about 1/3 of mixed race indian/white who are all now claiming to be indigenous -- don't blame them given the magnitude of the Government handouts). Can't wait for a time when race is no longer any factor in life but everyone is treated the same with no special status or privilege. Not in my lifetime, I'm afraid. Things on the equality front seem to be getting worse-- not better!

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a novel in a series with Father John O'Malley and lawyer, Vicky Holden. Fascinating story about the Arapaho Indians on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and the photos taken of them by photographer, Edward S. Curtis around 1907. Parts are based on documented facts about the sad consequences of the land allotments acts. When Curtis's photos are displayed at the museum on the Reservation, history repeats itself. A current murder is linked to one a century ago. You can't read this story without thinking about the history of the United States and the legacy of Native Americans.

[Andrea George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every novel that I have read by Margaret Coel has been amazing. "Wife of Moon" was no exception. From the first page to the last, the plot kept moving. The main characters, Vicki Holden and Father John O'Malley of St. Francis Mission are once again embroiled in an intriguing historical fiction/mystery/thriller. Each novel provides a complete plot. There is no need to read Ms. Coel's novels in order. If you are looking for a well-written novel based on native American history, you will find her novels to be interesting, intriguing and well worth your time!

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Coel does a great job of intertwining a story from the past with a mystery in the present. In this one she tells about the photographer Edward Curtis coming the reservation in the early 1900s to take photos of the Indians. A chief's daughter is killed during a mock battle and in the present people with links to the chief's daughter are getting killed. Father John and Vicky found out why.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The senator from Wyoming is about to run for pesident and descendants of his Indian first wife are being killed. At thecenter of it all is Bashful Woman's land allotment which the senator family inherited after her murder and some photographs taken in 1907 by photographer Edwaed S. Curtis. Father O'Malley becomes involved as her cares for the Arapaho needs and their museum is broken into. This is one of Coel's better stories.

[Elaine Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just discovered this author, even though I’ve had this book on my list to read for several years. I’m very pleased with this story.
Very suspenseful, and kept me guessing.
Her knowledge of the Arapaho culture seems quite genuine.
She held my attention throughout the story. Even her flashbacks to prior times contributed to the story line and was not confusing.
Good book, however, sorry I started with 1 of the last of the series. Will have to go back to number 1!

[Johan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Coel

I've read and reread the Wind River Series. In this book, she grew her descriptive writing style into a carefully refined work of art. We always loved her characterization but she blossomed here into a more mature, worthy and notable writer. I'm hoping the rest of her books are as carefully and beautifully fleshed out. I am a writer who lives in Wyoming and I appreciate her loving care of our Western culture.