Customer Reviews

The Dream Stalker (A Wind River Reservation Myste)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Dream Stalker" has everything you could want in a mystery novel -- a suspensful and compelling story, well-drawn characters and setting, an intriguing glimpse into the Arapaho culture and frustrated love.

About the only complaint I could make is I wish Margaret Coel would continue the stories of her supporting characters from novel to novel. For example, her last book ended with Susan, Vicky Holden's daughter, in drug treatment. In "The Dream Stalker," it is mentioned Susan has returned home to L.A., but nothing else is stated about her recovery or her strained relationship with Vicky. Coel is so good at making me care about her characters, I want to see what happens to all of them.

However, that's a small quibble about a series that is rapidly becoming one of my favorites.

I also want to note the villain in "The Dream Stalker" was one of the most chilling killers I've ever encountered in mystery fiction, a person made all the scarier because of their absolute conviction that what they are doing is justified.

The attraction that Father John O'Malley and Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden feel for each other deepens in this third book of the series. Father John receives an anonymous phone call late at night, requesting a meeting with him. When he goes to the meeting place, he finds an unidentified body whom he is sure is the caller. Meanwhile Vicky is working to oppose a transaction which would allow a ranch to be turned over to a company which will use it for a nuclear storage site. More people die, and Father John is afraid that Vicky will be next. There are abductions, car chases, and other scarey moments while the Jesuit priest and the Arapaho attorney pursue the murderer. There are also the usual glimpses into the Arapaho culture which always enrich Margaret Coel's books. This is another good entry to this series.

Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden plays the Lone Ranger as she opposes the construction of a nuclear waste storage silo on the Legeau Ranch near the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Most of her tribe see the silo as an opportunity for jobs, but Vicky worries that the site will harm her people.

Her vocal opposition has stirred up the enmity of her opponents. One of them wants to quiet Vicky and all other opposition to the construction by using any means at his/her disposal. One opponent to the site is killed and Vicky nearly becomes a victim also. She turns to her one known ally, Father John O'Malley. Working as a team, the intrepid amateur sleuths begin to investigate why someone wants any opponents to the silo silenced. As they dig deeper, the pair becomes aware of their own attraction to each other. Still, they must solve the case if they plan to survive the silo construction.

Margaret Coel is rightfully being acknowledged as the female Tony Hillerman. The lead protagonists are wonderful characters and the story line is a very interesting blend of a modern problem (nuclear waste) and Native American folk lore. More novels like THE DREAM STALKER and readers will soon be calling Tony Hillerman the male Margaret Coel.

Harriet Klausner

Although this book was somewhat predictable and Ms. Coel seemed to be on her soap box environmentally, I still enjoyed the story. The mystery part of the book was exciting enough, and I still really like Father John. The book is about a large energy company wanting to put a nuclear waste dump site right smack in the middle of Wind River Reservation. Despite all the jobs that this site would yield, Vicky Holden cannot go along with the idea, and she publishes her viewpoints in the local papers as well as at local meetings. Then there is the old cowboy that Father John finds murdered in an abandoned cabin. Do these two things have something in common? Before Vicky and Father John find out, more murders occur on their Reservation. What makes these books so special are Coel's characters. They are very real and very well-drawn. This is a very good series.

I find it interesting how Margaret Coel weave's a story from start to end involving the Arapaho way of life their traditions and sacred beliefs and John O'Malley the priest of St. Francis Mission is more than a priest, well written.

Are you into mysteries set on indian reservations? Well, I believe you'll find this series to your liking. I have, for certain. Give Margaret Coel's books a try & you won't be disappointed. Ms. Kay

simply love it! Read Wife of Moon first and now Dream Stalker...what a teriffic storyteller. Likeable characters, interesting local color and I learned a bit about Plains indians I did not know. If you like Hillerman, you will like this series, I think.

I have bought Ms. Coel's other mysteries partly because her protagonists and mysteries are interesting, and partly because they are set in my home state. In this particular story, however, science was murdered in addition to a drunken cowboy, a tribal chairman, and odd assorted other unfortunates. Irritating careless errors certainly decreased my enjoyment of the book and detracted from the storyline. For instance, Ms. Coel has lightning flashes that follow closely after claps of thunder, "underground lakes" that are filled up with water pumped into oil wells to increase production, and "one to the minus six" being "much less" than "one in ten million"...(one to the minus six equals one). I found myself hunting for the next mistake instead of enjoying the mystery. Better luck next time, I hope.

I enjoyed the first two novels in this series, but not this one. Her attorney protagonist became a shrill, irrational, self righteous zealot with no facts to support her breathless polemics. (All it would take is an unspecified "natural disaster" and then The Terrible Thing would happen!). The contrived "factual" rationalization for her position was as predictible as it was silly. This is a novel long on overly emotional protagonists drenched in self absorbed angst and prolix, confession prone bad guys, but short on rational plot development. It makes one long for Laconic Joe Leaphorn from Hillerman's novels. If you like the manufactured emotional trapeze of a soap opera, you will like this book.