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High Hawk
It’s 1970, and on the Windy Creek Reservation in South Dakota, amidst the rise of AIM in neighboring Pine Ridge, a baby boy appears nestled in a box of Styrofoam peanuts on the doorstep of St. Rose Catholic Church. His appearance disrupts the predictable, lonely life of longtime reservation priest Father Joe Kreitzer. The child, whom they name Bear, finds refuge under the care of Father Joe’s closest friend and ally, Alice Nighthawk.
Thirteen years pass without event, when Alice’s older son, Albert, is mysteriously murdered outside a bar in Rapid City, and Bear is accused of attempting to kill the only person who knows what happened that night. At the same time, Father Joe receives a letter from a person from his past, the only woman who made him question the path of priesthood. She has reached out to Father Joe as one of the few who might help her.
To keep Bear’s case from federal prosecution, Father Joe and Alice begin a search for Bear’s long-lost mother. But their journey unearths more than they bargained for, plunging Father Joe into a labyrinth of secrets and revelations. He is forced not only to confront the choices he’s made and the secrets he keeps, but also to see the truth of the lives of the people around him.
High Hawk is a rich tapestry of love and history, delving into the delicate intricacies of the past and the redemptive power of second chances. Through evocative prose, the lives of those on the fringes of American culture come alive, navigating adversity and forging connections against all odds.
Thirteen years pass without event, when Alice’s older son, Albert, is mysteriously murdered outside a bar in Rapid City, and Bear is accused of attempting to kill the only person who knows what happened that night. At the same time, Father Joe receives a letter from a person from his past, the only woman who made him question the path of priesthood. She has reached out to Father Joe as one of the few who might help her.
To keep Bear’s case from federal prosecution, Father Joe and Alice begin a search for Bear’s long-lost mother. But their journey unearths more than they bargained for, plunging Father Joe into a labyrinth of secrets and revelations. He is forced not only to confront the choices he’s made and the secrets he keeps, but also to see the truth of the lives of the people around him.
High Hawk is a rich tapestry of love and history, delving into the delicate intricacies of the past and the redemptive power of second chances. Through evocative prose, the lives of those on the fringes of American culture come alive, navigating adversity and forging connections against all odds.
242 pages, Paperback
Published October 8, 2024
7 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
Amy Frykholm
9 books22 followersAmy Frykholm is an American writer whose four books of non-fiction have covered the territory of American religion from apocalypticists to saints. She is an award winning writer and senior editor for the magazine The Christian Century, appears frequently on television and radio programs as an expert in American religion, and has lectured widely on subjects like the Rapture, purity culture, and lost female figures in Christianity. She has a PhD in Literature from Duke University.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 3, 2025
What happens when you start seeing the ‘unseen’?
“You forget that any house, every house, has blind spots, and what you know is always partial. Pretty soon you see only what you are used to seeing and hear only what you are used to hearing.”
Religious doctrines are often based on ‘following’, on obeying the rules, obeying the teachers, respecting the hierarchy. But what if this obedience, lauded as a virtue, is used to silence concerns for wrong doings? To cover up what needs to be shown in the open. Harm is then compounded by using the religious rules, the religious virtues, for the advantage of the wrongdoers. Hurt is first done to the victims and then secondly on to the ones who see and are made to look away and be part of the conspiracy of silence.
An ARC kindly provided by the publishers via Netgalley
“You forget that any house, every house, has blind spots, and what you know is always partial. Pretty soon you see only what you are used to seeing and hear only what you are used to hearing.”
Religious doctrines are often based on ‘following’, on obeying the rules, obeying the teachers, respecting the hierarchy. But what if this obedience, lauded as a virtue, is used to silence concerns for wrong doings? To cover up what needs to be shown in the open. Harm is then compounded by using the religious rules, the religious virtues, for the advantage of the wrongdoers. Hurt is first done to the victims and then secondly on to the ones who see and are made to look away and be part of the conspiracy of silence.
An ARC kindly provided by the publishers via Netgalley
November 21, 2024
In clumsy hands, High Hawk could easily lurch into the realm of melodrama. Lucky for us, Amy Frykholm's hands are sure and instead of melodrama, we get a slow unfolding of the interior lives of our characters, who face catastrophes new and ongoing.
Father Joe Kreitzer has spend decades working at Windy Creek reservation in South Dakota. Once Father Joe looked to be the sort of young priest who might rise to a significant position in the church, but early on he was sent to Windy Creek as a sort of exile—a place where what he did and how he felt about the capital-C Church were guaranteed to garner no attention whatsoever.
Alice Nighthawk and Father Joe have long been allies, even before Alice took in the foundling left on the doorstep of the church. Now that foundling, almost an adult, is accused of attempted murder and his origins are suddenly crucial because they will determine whether he faces those charges in federal or tribal court. Alice and Father Joe work together to save Bear, Alice's "adopted" son. The "adopted" is important because without the right papers people simply don't exist.
At the same time, Father Joe has been told that the Windy Creek church is being closed and he's being transferred somewhere even further out of the way. He's also received a letter from "the only woman who made him question the path of priesthood" (publisher's promo material). See what I mean about potential for melodrama?
Father Joe takes center stage here—we spend time with Alice, but don't live inside her the way we're asked to live inside Father John, looking with his disappointed and disillusioned perspective. He's no longer sure about this calling, about his efficacy in the life he's been leading. All in all, he's a rather nebbish-y sort of central character, if you'll forgive the ecumenicalism. Still, he's not someone readers can brush aside or view with a pitying that allows for distance.
High Hawk will have readers caring deeply about the fate of its characters and their sense of self. They'll see the big in the small—and the small in the big. Read this book when you're craving something deeply human.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
Father Joe Kreitzer has spend decades working at Windy Creek reservation in South Dakota. Once Father Joe looked to be the sort of young priest who might rise to a significant position in the church, but early on he was sent to Windy Creek as a sort of exile—a place where what he did and how he felt about the capital-C Church were guaranteed to garner no attention whatsoever.
Alice Nighthawk and Father Joe have long been allies, even before Alice took in the foundling left on the doorstep of the church. Now that foundling, almost an adult, is accused of attempted murder and his origins are suddenly crucial because they will determine whether he faces those charges in federal or tribal court. Alice and Father Joe work together to save Bear, Alice's "adopted" son. The "adopted" is important because without the right papers people simply don't exist.
At the same time, Father Joe has been told that the Windy Creek church is being closed and he's being transferred somewhere even further out of the way. He's also received a letter from "the only woman who made him question the path of priesthood" (publisher's promo material). See what I mean about potential for melodrama?
Father Joe takes center stage here—we spend time with Alice, but don't live inside her the way we're asked to live inside Father John, looking with his disappointed and disillusioned perspective. He's no longer sure about this calling, about his efficacy in the life he's been leading. All in all, he's a rather nebbish-y sort of central character, if you'll forgive the ecumenicalism. Still, he's not someone readers can brush aside or view with a pitying that allows for distance.
High Hawk will have readers caring deeply about the fate of its characters and their sense of self. They'll see the big in the small—and the small in the big. Read this book when you're craving something deeply human.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
November 2, 2024
This beautiful novel set in the prairie and reservation land of South Dakota moves peacefully and deeply through the lives of several Lakota people and their priest, Father Joe. After five non-fiction books, including Wild Woman and Julian of Norwich, Frykholm’s novel, 25 years in the making, is a moving and elegantly written story of the challenges of faithful living and committed relationships. You finish it wanting more. What happens to these dear people you have just lived with for the last 230 pages? You’ve started to care about them. Now what? This novel deserves a much wider audience.
December 25, 2024
This story has everything I like best in novels: beautiful writing, well developed, introspective characters, and compelling plot lines.The main character is a Roman Catholic priest, assigned to a parish on an Indian reservation in South Dakota, who kept quiet when he should have used his words, trusting in his church hierarchy. Here’s an example of the writing, and I think the words apply to more than religious organizations, such as power struggles over fascism.
“Our trouble came, he thought, from ourselves – from our love for hierarchy, from our desire to follow a known way. It came right from those great Gothic cathedrals and their orders of angels. How we wanted to be right and to be good and to be well ordered. How right we thought we were. but when it came time to speak, we didn’t have words. When it came time to challenge, we had only atrophied muscles in our throats. We thought we were good soldiers in a holy war, and it turned out that we were rank and file with no mind of our own. Bees in a hive. Ants on a hill. But we weren’t only insects because we had to put our mental skills to plenty of use in the work of self-preservation.”
“Our trouble came, he thought, from ourselves – from our love for hierarchy, from our desire to follow a known way. It came right from those great Gothic cathedrals and their orders of angels. How we wanted to be right and to be good and to be well ordered. How right we thought we were. but when it came time to speak, we didn’t have words. When it came time to challenge, we had only atrophied muscles in our throats. We thought we were good soldiers in a holy war, and it turned out that we were rank and file with no mind of our own. Bees in a hive. Ants on a hill. But we weren’t only insects because we had to put our mental skills to plenty of use in the work of self-preservation.”
January 27, 2025
You can find my review of this book at the Colorado Review.
The short version: This is a beautiful and, at times, frustrating novel that "avoids conventional narrative arcs and imitates real life, with all of its cul-de-sacs and oxbows...ballasted by its rich sense of the intertwined existence of people and place." (Quoting myself...ew.)
It asks hard questions about faith, love, and duty, without necessarily seeking (or finding) clean answers. It has the elements of a mystery-thriller but doesn't want to follow that path. "Frykholm refuses to deliver a fantasy narrative in which mysteries are resolved and our tarnished heroes redeemed." (Me again- yuck!)
If the plot founders a bit at times, rest assured that Frykholm brings it all home in fine style, giving us an unexpected but satisfying conclusion.
The short version: This is a beautiful and, at times, frustrating novel that "avoids conventional narrative arcs and imitates real life, with all of its cul-de-sacs and oxbows...ballasted by its rich sense of the intertwined existence of people and place." (Quoting myself...ew.)
It asks hard questions about faith, love, and duty, without necessarily seeking (or finding) clean answers. It has the elements of a mystery-thriller but doesn't want to follow that path. "Frykholm refuses to deliver a fantasy narrative in which mysteries are resolved and our tarnished heroes redeemed." (Me again- yuck!)
If the plot founders a bit at times, rest assured that Frykholm brings it all home in fine style, giving us an unexpected but satisfying conclusion.
October 31, 2024
Superior read delving into two very important subjects that interest me, spiritually (religion) and Original, First People culture, belief system and spirituality. Amy Frykholm captures it all intwining the characters lives, choices and recognizing each day we can change our course, choose another path. Beautiful write, read and insight into life. Thank you
February 10, 2025
Captivating at first but dragged through the middle. The ending wasn't as satisfying as I hoped and left some loose ends for me. But a fair read that I would definitely watch a film adaptation of. I would be interested in hearing how Indigenous readers receive this story.
July 3, 2025
A very well-written story about a priest on a reservation in the 70's and 80's. Although a mystery sets the stage, the story centers on the idea of truth, and what our responsibility is to it. I loved Father Joe's ruminations, but the ending left me wanting a little more.
September 26, 2024
I enjoyed the book and subject matter. I thought it was well researched and handled in a respectful way.
Thank you to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for the ARC version of this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for the ARC version of this book.
Want to read
December 25, 2024Recommended by Kate Belt
March 28, 2025
Beautiful, sad, hopeful.
April 9, 2025
I loved this novel and all the characters. Beautiful prose and evocative settings.
September 13, 2025
A really compelling story, and well written in parts, but I wish it came together a bit more in the end.
October 11, 2025
Not for me.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews