The Spirit Woman

Rating:
Summary: Save This One For A Rainy Day
Review: A rambler with historical overtones, The Spirit Woman is set on a Colorado Indian reservation peopled with vaguely familiar and rather sedate characters that leave a reader wondering whose cookie cutter Margaret Coel borrowed to cut them out. No genuine surprises in plot or character come to the reader's rescue to convince you these are real people with real problems. The book has the feel of a formula mystery, just well crafted enough to be mildly entertaining, yet hindered by the writer's unwillingness to get off the fence and pull out all the punches. The plot is a little too respectable, plodding through correct mental, social and historical territory as if the author is afraid to offend. You'll find no flamboyant, action driven main characters like Stephanie Plum or Kinsey Millhone here. Main characters Father O'Mally, a recovering alcoholic, and Vicky Holden, a divorced Arapahoe lawyer, are likeable enough, but come across as humorless and powerless. Their progress through the book is chiefly emotion driven and interesting at times. But the characters lack the necessary appeal of flesh and blood people and the plot has few twists or unpredictable events that could have elevated this novel into a superior read. The book's strong point is the setting, the Colorado landscape and weather managing to steal the show. Reminiscent in the style and pace of an English cozy mystery that's been transplanted to the modern American west, it should be a moderately satisfying read for Tony Hillerman and Agatha Christie buffs alike. But fans of fast paced suspense by the likes of Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich and Elmore Leonard may find The Spirit Woman tedious at best. Good enough for a Rainy Day, but if it falls out of your beach bag you probably won't mourn the loss.

Rating:
Summary: Save For A Rainy Day
Review: A rambler with historical overtones, The Spirit Woman is set on a Wyoming Indian reservation peopled with vaguely familiar and rather sedate characters that leave a reader wondering whose cookie cutter Margaret Coel borrowed to cut them out. No genuine surprises in plot or character come to the reader's rescue to convince you these are real people with real problems. The book has the feel of a formula mystery, just well crafted enough to be mildly entertaining, yet hindered by the writer's unwillingness to get off the fence and pull out all the punches. The plot is a little too respectable, plodding through correct mental, social and historical territory as if the author is afraid to offend. You'll find no flamboyant, action driven main characters like Stephanie Plum or Kinsey Millhone here. Main characters Father O'Mally, a recovering alcoholic, and Vicky Holden, a divorced Arapahoe lawyer, are likeable enough, but come across as humorless and powerless. Their progress through the book is chiefly emotion driven and interesting at times. But the characters lack the necessary appeal of flesh and blood people and the plot has few twists or unpredictable events that could have elevated this novel into a superior read. The book's strong point is the setting, the landscape and weather managing to steal the show. Reminiscent in the style and pace of an English cozy mystery that's been transplanted to the modern American west, it should be a moderately satisfying read for Tony Hillerman and Agatha Christie buffs alike. But fans of fast paced suspense by the likes of Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich and Elmore Leonard may find The Spirit Woman tedious at best. Good enough for a Rainy Day, but if it falls out of your beach bag you probably won't mourn the loss.

Rating:
Summary: In search of Sacajawea
Review: Arapaho attorney Vicki Holden has a reunion with an old friend when Laura Simmons appears on the Wind River Reservation to do research on Sacajawea. Laura is following in the footsteps of another investigator who came to the reservation 20 years earlier and who disappeared. When a skeleton is unearthed which proves to be the first investigator, Vicky and her friend, Father John, decide that Laura may be in danger. This book contains themes of domestic abuse and alcoholism which occur on the reservation and which tie the stories of the two investigators to that of Sacajawea. The story gets a little slow at times, but the continuing attraction between the unlikely pair of priest and female attorney keeps things interesting.

Rating:
Summary: In search of Sacajawea
Review: Arapaho attorney Vicki Holden has a reunion with an old friend when Laura Simmons appears on the Wind River Reservation to do research on Sacajawea. Laura is following in the footsteps of another investigator who came to the reservation 20 years earlier and who disappeared. When a skeleton is unearthed which proves to be the first investigator, Vicky and her friend, Father John, decide that Laura may be in danger. This book contains themes of domestic abuse and alcoholism which occur on the reservation and which tie the stories of the two investigators to that of Sacajawea. The story gets a little slow at times, but the continuing attraction between the unlikely pair of priest and female attorney keeps things interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Coel is one of my favorite mystery writers
Review: However, this book was just a little bit less good than as I was expecting, perhaps because my expectations have been set so high by all of Coel's previous works.

Coel, who writes about a Jesuit mission on an Aparaho reservation in Wyoming, does a wonderful job of creating a sense of place and people so well that you really want to go out to Wyoming and meet these people and see it all for yourself. It's hard to believe that the mission isn't really there exactly the way she describes it, with the same priest riding down a rough empty road listening to opera.

She has continued to bring to life real people in what feels like a real reservation in this book, but I found myself a little less engaged by the plot than I have been in earlier books by her. Nevertheless, this book is well worth reading.

The plot involves a journal which records Sacajawea's story; some say that the journal was destroyed in a fire, others say that it was rescued and hidden on the reservation that the Arapaho share with the Shoshone. Twenty years earlier a historian had claimed to have found the journal, but she mysteriously disappeared. Now another historian has come to the reservation to look for the journal. The book begins with the discovery of a skeleton by a Jesuit priest/detective; the skeleton appears to be connected to the missing journal. Did the journal survive the fire, and if so, who has it? Was the first historian's disappearance related to the journal? What happened to her and why? And is the second historian in danger?

One of the themes of this mystery is spousal abuse. As the series continues, Coel seems to have a less romanticized view of life on the reservation, and in this book she deals with one of the problems that many of the women of the reservation have to deal with.

On the whole, an excellent book, particularly for anyone interested in Native Americans.

Rating:
Summary: Margaret Coel shows true spirit
Review: Margaret Coel's latest installment in her Father John O'Malley mysteries will entice fans of mysteries and Indian lore. As in her previous entries, Coel involves Father O'Malley in the affairs of the Indian reservation with the perfect blend of Jesuit intensity, compassion and humanity. His understanding of the native community helps him to solve the latest mystery. A hint of an involvement with a colleague is intimated, and suggested as reason for him to leave his assignment. The recurring issues of alcoholism and spousal abuse offer social commentary and plot advancement without being didactic. Readers will not be disappointed at the book's ending.

Rating:
Summary: Good entertainment
Review: Vicky Holden is a woman you can identify with. She becomes like a good friend you watch struggling with personal as well as career issues. Be sure to add this to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: Good entertainment
Review: Vicky Holden is a woman you can identify with. She becomes like a good friend you watch struggling with personal as well as career issues. Be sure to add this to your collection.