In 1907, photographer Edward S. Curtis arrived at the Wind River Reservation, hoping to document the Arapaho way of life before it vanished altogether. To preserve the legacy of warriors in battle, Curtis staged an attack on a village planning to capture it on film. But it became all too real when the daughter of the tribe’s chief was found murdered--and her killer was never identified.
Now, Curtis’s photographs are on display at the museum of St. Francis Mission on the reservation, and history seems doomed to repeat itself. A descendant of the tribal chief who appeared in Curtis’s pictures has been shot to death, and the museum’s curator has disappeared. The two incidents may be linked to a near century-old murder.
Publishers Weekly proclaims that “of all the writers of Native American mysteries compared to Tony Hillerman, [Margaret] Coel is the one who most deserves the accolade”and Hillerman himself calls her “a master.” The author’s latest Wind River Reservation mystery finds Father John O’Malley and Vicky Holden investigating a murder that occurred nearly a century agoand its connection to a much more recent crime.
