Ghost Walker (Wind River Reservation Mystery) [Hardcover]

Margaret Coel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996 | Series: Wind River Reservation Mystery

When Father John O'Malley returns to investigate another murder near the Arapaho Indian mountains, he is shocked to discover that the body he had seen in the snow the previous night has vanished, leaving only suspicion and doubt behind as evidence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you like Tony Hillerman, you'll also enjoy and appreciate Margaret Coel--whose endearing hero Father John O'Malley treats his Arapaho parishioners with respect and kindness. In his second outing, Father O'Malley has to deal with a disappearing corpse and the suspicions of the local police. Hillerman has called Coel a "master"; he isn't just being kind to a younger writer.

From Publishers Weekly

In this second well-crafted adventure (after The Eagle Catcher), Father John O'Malley discovers a body dumped in a frozen ditch near his small church on the Arapaho reservation in Wyoming. His own truck disabled, Father John gets a ride from an edgy, evasive stranger. When police arrive at the snow-covered roadside, the body has vanished. The Arapahos say the ghost is walking around somewhere, causing trouble until the body is properly buried and the spirit can rest. Sure enough, Marcus Deppert, a troubled young Indian, disappears. His former girlfriend is murdered. Father John learns that the nervous stranger is living with two other men and the drug-using daughter of Vicky Holden, a lawyer and Father John's good friend. Worst of all for the priest, his superiors decide to sell the small reservation church to a shadowy investment group. Against a wintertime Wyoming to chill the bones, Coel skillfully meshes her story lines, offering a host of fine characters: the recovering alcoholic priest whose Jesuit logic often yields to his own weaknesses; his aged, Shakespeare-quoting mentor; and an Arapaho professional woman caught between white and Indian worlds.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1st edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425154688
• ISBN-13: 978-0425154687
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #474,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Margaret Coel is the author of four nonfiction books and many articles on the people and places of the American West. Her work has won national and regional awards. Her first John O'Malley mystery, The Eagle Catcher, was a national bestseller, garnering excellent reviews from the Denver Post, Tony Hillerman, Jean Hager, Loren D. Estleman, Stephen White, Earlene Fowler, Ann Ripley and other top writers in the field. A native of Colorado, she resides in Boulder.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Ghost Walker was an interesting read., October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ghost Walker (A Wind River Reservation Myste) (Paperback)

The Ghost Walker was quick and easy reading. As a fan of Tony Hillerman's work and his fascinating Navaho characters, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, I was interested in how Margaret Coel's work, set on the Wind River Arapaho reservation, would compare. Maybe it wasn't fair to compare. Coel's and Hillerman's styles are totally different, as they should be. Even though they both write about Native Americans on the reservation, every writer is unique, every story is different. Coel's Father John O'Malley is certainly an engaging character, a real, flawed human being like the rest of us. Still, I found Coel's story here to be not quite as engaging as I thought it could have been (thus, 3 stars). I enjoyed the book enough, though, to want to read another in the series, maybe The Dream Stalker.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Coel makes you feel like you were there on the reservation., February 9, 1999

By 

M. C. Crammer (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ghost Walker (A Wind River Reservation Myste) (Paperback)

Margaret Coel is one of the more talented mystery writers out there, but what really makes her stand out is her ability to write with sensitivity about life among the Arapaho. She manages to avoid stereotypes both of "the drunken Indian" and "the noble Indian". But she is also excellent at her descriptions of setting, and gives you a feel for Wyoming. When she described the snowy wind-swept winter landscape of Wyoming, I could see it all clearly in my mind and wanted to turn up the thermostat. I was a little disappointed with the ending, and that is the only reason I wouldn't give this book five stars. But if you like reading about Native Americans, you will love this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes you feel right at home with Father John...., June 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghost Walker (Wind River Reservation Mystery) (Hardcover)

Margaret Coel's second book weaves an intricate web involving smuggling and murder on the Arapaho Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. The primary characters, a Jesuit priest fighting his personal battle with alcoholism and an Arapaho attorney plagued with guilt over abandoning her children when they were young. Together these two unlikely detectives investigate the suspicious events that take place when three white men show up on the reservation with the attorney's daughter.

From the moment that Father John O'Malley discovers a body at the side of the road during a blizzard, the reader becomes part of the story. The characters and the mysteries they face, pull the reader into the depths of the book. We become friends with Father John and Vicky Holden, and eagerly get caught up in their lives.

This is a very "comfortable" book to read. Though it is not highly suspenseful, the story has been told thoroughly and with the insight of someone who knows the ways of the Arapaho people. The reader is allowed glimpses in to the private lives of the characters, and comes away wanting to know them better.

I gave it an "8" only because there were times when it seemed to drag a little.....so its really close to a "9" !!