Customer Reviews

The Spider's Web (A Wind River Reservation Myste)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In Wyoming on the Wind River Reservation, someone murders Arapaho Ned Windsong with his white fiancée Marcy Morrison as the only alleged witness. Marcy accuses Ned's punk friends Lionel Lookingglass and Dwayne Hawk as his murderers. Suspicion also falls on Ned's former girlfriend, Roseanne Birdwoman.

Though he has doubts about her veracity, Father John O'Malley provides a safe location for Marcy and also hides Roseanne. Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden is irate with Father John for doubting Marcy's account as the lawyer assumes her friend would not challenge a Native American's story, but did that of an outsider. Ned's family believes Marcy killed their son; so her televangelist father hires Vicky to protect his daughter's interests. However, both Father John and Vicky are stunned when someone kills Lionel and Dwayne as the case spins out of control with someone behind the scenes twirling The Spider's Web that engulfs everyone else.

The fascination with this exciting entry is the usual partners are on opposite sides of the murder investigation. As always in this series, readers obtain a taste of modern day Arapaho life wrapped inside a murder mystery. Fans of the Holden-Father John whodunits will enjoy the latest entry due to the disagreement between the friends that adds freshness to what would otherwise be a fun but familiar Wind River mystery.

Harriet Klausner

I am a big fan of Margaret Coel's Wind River Mystery series and liked all of her books, especially "Wife of Moon" and "The Girl With the Braided Hair". The interaction between Father O'Malley and Vicky was even more exiting and suspenseful than the actual mystery. Unfortunately, there is less of that in her new book - or is it just my imagination? Even her writing style is less fluent and gripping in this one. Not to mention the mystery plot, which is (sorry, Margaret!) rather boring. It's stil entertaining, especially when you regard Father O'Malley and Vicky as part of the family, but I can only give four stars.

While I always enjoy Coel's stories about Father John and Vicky, this latest novel seems somewhat lackluster and didn't have the same impact on me. Perhaps it's time for Father John and Vicky to either get together or for Father John to be transferred permanently off the reservation so that Vicky doesn't have him as a distraction any more!

Margaret Coel is a good writer and her latest in the "Wind River Mystery" series, "The Spider's Web", has some fine moments--especially when it focuses on the story context and tries to give some depth to the characters on offer here. The two main series characters, Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Jesuit Father John O'Malley, are the glue that holds the story together, but otherwise they play relatively secondary roles in "...Web". The plot revolves around the murder of a young Arapaho man who has returned to the reservation to turn his life around. He has been involved with a non-Indian woman who follows him to the reservation and is the apparent witness to his killing. The why, how and who of the murder are spun out to a ending that is not especially surprising. Strangely, some prominent plot threads are left dangling at the conclusion.

"The Spider's Web" is at its strongest in its gritty and honest portrayal of contemporary life on an Indian reservation--this one in Wyoming. The effect of the young man's murder on his family, girl friends and the community at large is dramatic and touching. The book is less effective in pushing the plot, which has an overabundance of not terribly meaningful conversations and other dead ends--it could have used some real editorial tightening. As mentioned, the ending is not terribly clear. I would try other Margaret Coel books before this one.

Another very enjoyable mystery in the Wind River series. Ned Windsong is murdered and there is an outsider Marcy Morrison injured in the same room as Ned. Who murdered him and why? Ned had just returned to the rez to become part of the Sun Dance ritual. He was turning his life around and now he is dead. Vicky Holden is the attorney for Marcy and Father O'Malley is trying to protect Marcy and Roseanne Birdwoman (Ned's former girlfriend). Very suspenseful and a good read.

The strange team of Father John O'Malley and attorney Vicki Holden in this latest Wind River Mystery follows dissimilar paths to arrive at a similar but unproven conclusion. It begins when an Arapaho man is shot and killed, the only witness a white girl who claims she was his fiancée. Vicki is retained by the girl's father to "protect her interest," Father John providing refuge for the woman while authorities hunt the two men she accuses of being the murderers.

Father John suspects something is off about the woman, but can't quite come up with the reason. Vicki, on the other hand, cannot believe the woman could have committed the crime, which many of her fellow Arapahos believe, pitting her against them and Father John's instincts. Usually working together, this time they march to the beat of different drummers.

"The Spider's Web" reads somewhat differently from its predecessors; perhaps it's just that the story is a lot less complex than those in the past. Still infused with Arapaho legends and rituals, the flavor of the novel retains at the same high level of interest. But somehow, this mystery is less involved with Arapaho and western culture and peoples, than just `ordinary' human frailty. Nevertheless, it is a well-done effort and a good read, and is recommended.

I am so glad that I found this Author, Margaret Coel, I have read almost all of her books now, but The Spider's Web is on of the best. I could not put it down. I hope the author will continue to write books about the Wind River Res, as all her books have been hard to put down once I start them. I now only have two left of the Wind River books and I don't know what I will do when those are read. Kudos to the author and her knowledge of the Native Americans. Excellent reading!!!!!!
Apacharo

I have been reading the Wind River Mystery series for some time now, and it one of my favourite contemporary mystery series. Having said that, this one was not quite as good as what I've come to expect from this series. I also did not really care for the way this book ended. Too much unfinished business and undisclosed danger. But Father John O'Malley was still wonderful and that is the main thing that keeps me coming back to this series. I love the mix of modern life and ancient Arapaho customs that these books provide. Father John finds himself in the middle of a thieving ring in this book, and people from this ring keep getting killed. He needs to find out who the ringleader of this gang could be and stop him before more lives are lost.

This is the first book by Margaret Coel that I have read. I enjoyed it a great deal. It is part of an extensive series set on the Wind River Reservation. The main characters are a Native American lawyer, Vicki Holden, and Father John O'Malley, a Jesuit priest. The plot involves a series of seemingly simple crimes that become interrelated in a complicated way. The book is quite realistic, with very believable characters. I was very happy to discover this is the latest book in an extensive series.

Another fine Wind River Reservation mystery receives Margaret Coel's hallmark of mixing crime mysteries with Native American characters and issues in THE SPIDER'S WEB. Here outsider Marcy moves to the reservation - and introduces murder when the Arapaho she intends on marrying is shot. With Marcy the prime suspect, a Native attorney and a priest find each other on opposing sides of a conflict that could end the peace of the nation in this winning thriller, recommended for any mystery collection.