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.

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.

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.

Our local library recommended this book. It reminded me of "A Civil Action", a similar compelling story of small town American vs. big money and connections. It is a great read and I highly recommend it!

After reading this novel I couldn't help but feel I had just plowed through a book centering on the mafia. but I wasn't! It was a biography of an Indian tribe. The amount of lying, betrayal, greed, and corruption that goes on in this story rivals anything that I have ever read. And it is all true. many investigations have shown that benedict's research is all exact and while Foxwoods and the Pequots obviously deny it all they can't hide. Unfortunately the Federal government along with the state is completely involved with the billion dollar a year casino and refuses to do anything about the mistakes that were made. Records show that those claiming to be Pequots aren't Indians at all. If they are Indians they are not descendants from another tribe that did not reside in CT. Furthermore those that came to claim tribal membership to the government only did so a few months prior to appearing before the Federal government. As was shown in similar cases they would not have been recognized. Basically what this book shows is how lawyers took advantage of early laws to establish a way to generate tons of money. Through strong arm tactics, threats, and lies Tureen and his crew were able to get the Pequots recognized without the US government even attempting to check into the claim and also awarded them much more land than they originally were intending. As the story pans out a huge web of corruption ensues. benedict represents the story in such a compelling fashion you hardly believe it isn't fiction. From Lawyers defending the small town of Ledyard jumping ship to side with the Pequots for profit and gains to the head chairman of Indian Affairs covering up laws to allow the Foxwoods casino to expand all paints a picture of how money rules our government. Simpathetic to the tribe the Lawyers for the Pequots pushed and pushed and put Hayward and his rag tag band of potential Indians in a position to buy their way into anything. When they wanted something they just paid the state of CT for it like their ability to get slot machines costing them 100 million every year in payments to the state. Or through campaigne contributions to President Clinton the corruption goes all the way to the top. This is a must read for anyone to see how money is all that matters in this great land of ours. And that now even after all of this evidence has come to light the federal government refuses to take any action that would cost them that money.

If you live in Eastern Connecticut, as I do, or if you live in the eastern part of the US , chances are good that you've been to the Foxwoods Casino. You might want to read this book in order to better understand to whom the millions of dollars we collectively spend there goes!

I was not able to put down this book since it arrived! It illustrates how complacent politics and leadership guided by tunnel vision literally changed the face of the eastern part of this state. If a small fraction of the injustices done to the people of Ledyard and the surrounding towns is true, then we should ALL be outraged that this travesty has been allowed to occur.

... .

My suggestion is that you read the book and make your own decision. I can say that it has been enlightening to me especially now that Connecticut is planning on allowing even more newly recognized tribes to build still more casinos in eastern Connecticut. Lets hope nobody else loses their land or their home to benefit THAT endeavor.

This book could be used in a college course as an anthology of metaphors. They finally started to irritate me. About half way through, I found myself skipping paragraphs, then pages, then chapters and finally gave up and read the end. It was a sad, depressing tale that just seemed to go around and around in circles. Maybe that's what the author was aiming for.

Perma Red is a book I greatly enjoyed, though I don't believe it would be a book everyone could appreciate, that's why I gave it three stars, which should actually be 3.5 stars or 3.75 stars. If it were me alone, I would have given Debra Magpie Earling and Perma Red five stars *****. Let me see if I can further explain...
I picked up the book because I drive through the all the towns she writes about in this novel when I go to the Flathead Lake each summer; threfore, I knew exactly where she was talking about when she talks about Dixon and Perma, Kailspell, and Polson. So, I loved it because I could relate to the area...the Flathead River and the dangerous roads are exactly as she describes them. And describes them and the books characters she does...avidly. This book, so full of description, takes the reader into the fields and mountains Louise runs through...through the doors of the homes on the reservation and into the lives of three (perhaps four) characters so detailed and intertwined, that I thought I could perhaps run into them again. The souls, desrires, and weaknesses of Baptiste, Louise, and Charlie, (and Harvey)are placed throughout the novel so the reader never knows more than they should before the story unfolds. More than that, their downfalls are human.
One reviewer said this book has a lot of methaphors, and they are right...just look at the title and then read the book...you will understand what I mean. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't buy the book. Quite contrary, I would say.
I liked this book enough to share it with my friends, and family, and with the book club I belong to.
As I stated earlier, this isn't necessarily a novel one would pick up right away. However, if you want something different to read, and give the book the chance it deserves, I believe you will remember Louise as a fierce surrivor--someone you know has seen "it all" first hand. Further, you will remember this book (hopefully) for the beauty and tragedy it brings to you.

There are lines in this novel that stopped me in my tracks. The harshness, beauty, violence and forgiveness of the land brilliantly parallel Earling's characters and story. Haunting and magnificent.

This mystery novel has two interesting features: its spacious settings in Colorado and Wyoming, and its detective team of an American Indian woman and a Catholic priest. Both these lead characters are sympathetic. Indian legends and a secret revealed in the confessional play parts in this story, which is competently told. On the down side, the scheme that drives the murders is not particularly original. The fortuitous intervention of a male friend saves the female sleuth from violence, a much overused convention. It would have been more interesting to read about how a plucky woman outsmarted the bad guys.

Author Margaret Coel launches "The Thunder Keeper," seventh in the line of a classic mystery series set on the Arapaho's Wind River reservation, with the classic hook of a man alone high on a ledge who soon plummets to his death. The police learn the dead man has been on an Arapaho spirit quest and label the death a suicide. But, a few pages later, a mysterious stranger confesses to a priest that soon more people will be murdered.

Coel's stories feature two amateur sleuths: St. Francis Mission Priest, Father John O'Malley, (history scholar and recovering alcoholic,) who has been exiled to the Arapaho reservation mission in Wyoming, and Vicky Holden, an Arapaho attorney who carries the baggage of a mean ex-husband, sometimes unhappy son (and a reciprocated inappropriate attraction for Father O'Malley.)

Father O'Malley knows he is bound by his vows to keep the confession secret. He decides to investigate the death of the man on a spirit quest himself.

Meanwhile, attorney Vicky Holden witnesses the horrific hit-and-run slaughter of Vince Lewis, a man who had valuable information he was about to tell her in reference to an urgent matter regarding the Wind River Reservation. Are the two deaths connected? If so, what ties them together? What is the secret worth killing for on Arapaho land?

The freshness of Coel's writing, the voice and clarity of the story, as well as her love and passion for the West shine in phrases like these: "The mountains rose jagged and blue in the orange-tinged dusk. Northwest, where the mountains dropped into a gully that allowed the sky to flow through, was Bear Lake," and "The thunder sounded like tanks rumbling through the sky. Lightning turned the air white and sent a charge through the earth that he could feel reverberating inside him....when the lightning flashed again he saw the petroglyph shining on the cliff above-human looking, eyes all-seeing, hands raised in benediction. He was not alone. The spirits were here, the messengers of the Creator."

Coel's skill crafting this series is a pleasure to watch. Read "The Thunder Keeper" for pure enjoyment.

Vicky Holden loves the land of the Arapahos, the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming, but she still leaves her home to take a job in Denver. The attorney needs to get away from the Jesuit priest Father O'Malley because they both have feelings for one other that are inappropriate. She also has to get away from her ex-husband, who wants to reconcile, but he keeps falling off the wagon and he is a mean drunk.

In Denver, Vicky currently works on a mineral rights case on behalf of the Navaho Nation. However, she receives a call from Vince Lewis, a vice president of Balder Industries, famous for their diamond minding operations. He tells her that he has information she needs to know involving the Wind River Reservation, but before they meet a hit and run driver kills Vince.

Back on the reservation, Father John hears the confession of a man who says his partner killed a man in a place sacred to the Arapaho. The police rule the man's death a suicide but Father John knows somebody killed him and there will be more deaths if the person isn't stopped. Vicky and Father John are coming at the same problem from different angles, both of them putting their lives in jeopardy.

Fans of Aimee and David Thurlo and Tony Hillerman will definitely enjoy this fast paced mystery starring two likable, believable and colorful protagonists. The heroine is a role model for women everywhere and the hero not only understands the underlying concepts of justice, he abides by them in his life. THE THUNDER KEEPER by Margaret Coel is a definite keeper.

Harriet Klausner

I think it is important that people - particularly young white liberals - not use this as an excuse for hating their fathers and other white men.

Having grown up in part around the Yakama Reservation, much of the hard life there had major impacts on all the ethnic groups there: black, white, Yakama, Wenatchis, Tejano, Philippino and others.

An important book that exposes the murderous and hateful agenda of white male settlers in the U. S., who still apparently can't be bothered with providing basic medical help to the people they have oppressed for centuries.

This short, easy to read book presents a basic overview of boarding school issues which occurred throughout the U.S. during the boarding school era. Brenda Child's book concentrates on the Red Lake Ojibwes who attended boarding school at Flandreau specifically. The book also uses personal stories of students and their families in vignettes preserved through letters sent to and from Flandreau. I found this book well-written, readable, and recommended as an overview of the boarding school era.

This book brings a theorectical analysis of the subject of american Indian education that is still fresh today. The problems associated with Indian education raised in this text are sadly still with us and much of the reason for that continuing problem can be found in the failure of the educators, whose job it is to teach American Indian youth, to follow some of the suggestions contained in this text. On the down side, the statistics in this text are dated and in need of revision. I would still even with that proviso recommend it heartily to any anthropologist or educational theorist looking into problems associated with Indian educational failure. Buy this book!

This book was really exiting it had me sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time reading it. The Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman is the perfect book for the murder mystery lover. Ernesto Cata and George Bowlegs are best friends they both mysteriously disappear, Cata leaves a pool of blood and is found dead, and George flees the area. Joe Leaphorn a Navajo police officer follows up on the case, but a number of things complicate his journey to find George and solve the Mystery. This book is suspenseful and a real thriller there are just enough characters to make it interesting but not confusing. The book was so great that I could not put it down until I learned what happened next. This was because of the author's style, which always left you hanging at the end of each chapter. Although this book was one of the better books I have read it does not have a very intriguing beginning, but whatever you do don't stop reading. I almost put the book down and stopped reading a few times in the first two or three chapters as I neared the end I was definitely glad that I continued. There's no doubt that you should definitely read this book.

This is the second book in the "Navajo Detective" series by Tony Hillerman and the first in which detective Joe Leaphorn is the principal charactor.

Dance Hall of the Dead is a sad story. It concerns the murder or disppearance of two boys, a Navajo and a Zuni, and Joe Leaphorn's efforts to find the missing boys. The riddle is entwined with Zuni religious ceremonies which Leaphorn, a Navajo, tries to understand.

Hillerman gives a virtual travelogue of the Zuni and Navajo country of New Mexico and Arizona in the early 1970s when the book was written. Leaphorn is a thoroughly likeable hero, rational, even-tempered, and ethical with a compulsion to get to the bottom of things. Hillerman is a master of creating an exotic atmosphere of Zuni and Navajo culture and ceremonies overlaid by the splendor of the natural setting. With such ornament, it hardly matters that the solution to the mystery itself is not very convincing.

What a great title! If you're a wide-open-spaces-kind-of-a-person Hillerman is unbeatable as a mystery writer with a western twist. In Joe Leaphorn he has created a fictional detective who can take his place among the all-time best.

The Dance Hall of the Dead will cause you to lose sleep! Not only is it one of the most suspenseful books around, the reader simply will not be able to put it down.

Hillerman writes in such vivid terms the reader will feel the chill of the wind and snow as well as see the vistas that have enchanted so many who have been on the Navajo and Zuni reservations. The characters come to life, and you will find yourself right next to Joe Leaphorn as he searches for clues to solve this mystery of murder and intrigue.

All of Hillerman's books are more than just mysterys, and this one is no different. Zuni culture explored at the finest level enriches this story tenfold. If you are interested in knowing about a small Native American culture that is difficult to find information about, this book is for you.

The honesty with which Kareem Abdul-Jabar's "A Season On The Reservation" is written is quite refreshing. In this age of spin control, especially when it comes to athletes and other public figures, it's nice to see a high-profile individual such as Mr. Abdul-Jabar share his insights and interactions with no noticeable smoke or mirrors. He begins his journey to an Apache reservation with hopes of uncovering some history (Mr. Abdul-Jabar has a fascination with Native-American history) and of sharing his wealth of basketball knowledge with the resident high school basketball squad. There are many bumps in the road, though, and "A Season On The Reservation" speaks eloquently about the cultural differences Mr. Abdul-Jabar encounters when dealing with the Native-American basketball players. They are not comfortable being singled out for criticism and they are not necesarily open to learning techniques that may make them better players. Over the course of the book, however, they learn from Mr. Abdul-Jabar and he, in turn, learns from them. One scene in particular, a confrontation with a player named Tony, is amazingly honest. "A Season On The Reservation" paints Mr. Abul-Jabar as a fellow human being, not a sculpture standing on a pedestal. The history lessons in the book, often drawing a parallel between Native Americans and African Americans, get a bit cumbersome occassionally, but "A Season On The Reservation" is well worth the cover price thank to its honest approach.

This book is a must read. You don't have to be a basketball fan, African American or Native American to relate to the author or his sojourn. He touches on human issues and lets you into to his life and the lives of the White Mountain Apache. The reader gets an insight into what makes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tick and some of his passions. The reader gets to know the players of Alchesay High School through the eyes of a true basketball legend and highly intelligent man. You get to see a side of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that the world has never known. I enjoyed this book and found it hard to put it down.

I think this is a book you must read. In reading this book you will be able to visualize what life is like on the rez. You'll get to know the players and read about the a season with the Alchesay Falcons. I guess hearing about my reservation from the eyes of someone else was a good feeling. This book proves how unique the Apache people of the White Mountain Apache Reservation really are. Read this book and fine out what life and basketball are like on the reservation.

After reading the terriffic "Without Reservation", I egarly anticipated getting another detailed view of how this "tribe" became what it is today. Unfortunately, I got a "soft" account of what happened in this author's view and IMO completely whitewashed the story behind the story: how government at all levels engaged in dereliction of duty and gross negligence in allowing this group to gain the recognition and power it has secured.

While the author does an OK good job of linking many of the favorable aspects of the court rulings to the "tribes" generous gifts to the DNC and Bill Clinton, he fails to delve into the corruption and naivite of the State and Federal governments and how this was a direct driver of the final outcome.

In fact, the author whitewashes a fundamental aspect of this "sovergn nation"- whether they acutally qualify as an Indian tribe according to clear Federal criteria on the subject.

If you want a "soft" and relatively "warm" view on the birth of the Foxwoods windfall, one that is short on details and long on political-correctness, you might enjoy this read. If you want a much more compelling and believable account of this situation, I suggest you read Mr. Benedict's "Without Reservation". You'll be glad you did.

This is the book I wish I had written -- but I never would have spent the time and effort on research that the writer did. As a Ledyard-based reporter in the early 1970s, I knew about that part of town referred to as the Indian Reservation, and I'd heard of the only old lady who lived there in a trailer, and her occasional grandchildren. Trouble is, in four years I never had the slightest inclination to write about her or the land or the story behind either. Nonetheless, as the casino developed, I was pleased that someone was beating city hall. In painstaking detail the author tells how it happened, including a good bit of history. It's a serious book, not just a compilation of gossip. An interesting part of Americana. But as Ledyard today tries to deal with all the traffic and tourists, I can't help but remember the hundreds of meetings I sat through where the town fathers agonized over how to attract visitors and to expand the town's economic base. The leader of the Historical Society was sure that restoring the vertical saw mill would do draw crowds. He never could have imagined that the answer could have been found in that trailer on that reservation at the far end of town!

I always wondered how Foxwoods came to be. Now I know thanks to this witty and ironic account, which the Boston Globe says is far more accurate and attentive to the facts than the other book on the topic. Also contains a lot of good insight into gambling, why people gamble, and unlike a lot of non fiction, it doesnt bog you down. Great book!