Very gripping! This is a great mystery. The main character is a Catholic priest on an Arapaho Indian Reservation in Wyoming.

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"The Eagle Catcher" is a stunning debut that made me want to read all the novels in Margaret Coel's mystery series set among the Arapahos on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation.

Father John O'Malley, head of the reservation's Jesuit mission, discovers his friend, tribal chairman Harvey Castle, stabbed to death in his tipi. The evidence points to Harvey's nephew, Anthony, as the killer, but Father John does not believe the young man capable of murder. He joins forces with Vicky Holden, an Arapaho attorney, to clear Anthony's name.

Before long, they find some answers in the tragic past of the Arapaho people, who, defeated and driven from their homes, arrived at the reservation only to be preyed upon by opportunistic white settlers. While writing an Arapaho history, Harvey Castle stumbled on evidence of an old crime so heinous, someone would kill to keep it hidden.

The mystery is compelling and the resolution satisfying, but what really makes this novel shine is its wonderful characters, depiction of Arapaho life and well-drawn Wyoming setting.

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If you're like me and enjoy mysteries that are permeated with Native American culture and history, put Margaret Coel's Wind River mysteries on your reading list. This first book in the series is a strong blend of well-plotted mystery, a setting that should be listed in the cast of characters, Arapaho culture and history, and two strong, interesting leads in Father John O'Malley and Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden.

"In the distance, the brown humps of the Wind River Mountains rode against the sky like a herd of giant buffalo."

The high plains setting of the Wind River Reservation plays an important role in the book, especially if you keep in mind the fact that Father John and Vicky are a thirty to forty-five minute drive from anywhere. It's remote, it's beautiful, and its weather can turn on a dime.

Father John O'Malley taught history in Jesuit prep schools back East until his drinking spiraled out of control and he was sent in disgrace from Boston to the Wind River Reservation. To his surprise, he fell in love with the landscape and with the Arapaho people. Vicky Holden was the wife of a drunk and abusive man. She divorced him and took the long lonely road to law school. Vicky is much more prickly than Father John, but both are strong, intelligent, and just the kind of characters to sustain a long series.

I was swept up by the story very quickly, and I appreciated how Coel skillfully wove present-day Arapaho issues into the narrative. Although I did identify one of the villains of the piece very early on, the killer came as a total surprise. The reveal should not have been so amazing, however, because there were clues all along the trail-- proof of how the story made me put aside my deductive skills.

If there was anything I didn't like about the book, it was the fact that the story was over much too soon and left me with a craving for more-- in particular, more of Vicky Holden. Father John received the lion's share of the attention in this book, and Vicky is such a fascinating character that I'm dying to learn more about her.

Good mystery, evocative setting, Native American culture and history, and two characters with whom I need to become better acquainted. I'm definitely returning to Wind River!

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Despite the plethora of trite/cliche painful sentences in the first half, I kept going and in the end I enjoyed it. I want to keep going with the series.

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This is an interesting, well writen view of the Arapaho people with many interesting bits of information about the native American life today as well as centuries ago. The writer weaves many twists and turns into the story to keep your attention. it is a hard book to put down.

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