The Death of Bernadette Lefthand

by Ronald B. Querry

The murder of a young Pueblo Indian woman sets the stage for a novel which flip-flops between the points of view of Bernadette's younger sister and the white woman for whom Bernadette kept house

232 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1993

Reviews

[Shomeret · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was looking for a novel I chose a mystery, so I'd have a mystery read in December for the mystery club that I participate in.

I learned about Apache and Navajo beliefs and practices from this book. Bernadette Lefthand and her family are Apache. I wondered about the origin of the Lefthand surname. Perhaps the first Lefthand had a dominant left hand.

A Navajo hand trembler makes an appearance toward the end of the narrative. I was fascinated by the phenomenon so I did some research, and learned some additional background for hand trembling.

I did find the mystery aspect predictable though the resolution was dramatically intense and quite tragic.

[Carrielynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was especially interesting to me because it closely related to several things I'd recently learned about Native American beliefs through both an art history class as well as a world music class. I did find the voice of the 16-year-old (Gracie) to be a bit annoying after awhile, even though I can understand why it was used in the way it was. In all, a very interesting read.

[Kristen Suagee-beauduy · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I read on the back cover that Louis Owens considered the book an announcement of the "emergence of a major new Native American novelist," I was sold. It was an interesting intellectual exercise to read about Navajo witchcraft from a 15-year-old Apache girl's perspective invented by a Choctaw author. I think it takes a certain talent to talk about how white, Apache, Hopi, and Navajo people can believe different and/or similar things depending on the individuals involved and the situations that present themselves and that Querry does a decent job of tackling these conversations in layman's terms, although I was always kind of hoping for wittier characters. I found the juxtaposition between innocent ignorance and plotting evil to be quite delicious, although the pacing of the plot left something to be desired.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

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