The Girl with Braided Hair / Margaret Coel

Margaret Coel’s 12th book in the series The Girl with Braided Hair has Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden involved in  efforts to identify a dead woman, who is apparently a murder victim. This causes tension with her love interest and law partner, Adam Lone Eagle, and she enlists the aid of their friend Fr. John O'Malley. Holden and O’Malley followed the twists and turns of the past as they discover what the dead girl knew.
What I really like about Coel's series, is that she sets her stories
against some historical incident and builds a "modern day" mystery around
it. In Wife of Moon (book #10 in series), it is the story of a photographer who went west and staged a battle between the whites and the Arapahoes. In The Girl with Braided Hair, the backdrop is more recent. She starts by having the reader follow a young woman who was on the fringes of the AIM in the 70's as she is running for her life after being accused of being a snitch. In each case, through wonderful storytelling, brings the ramifications of past deeds home to the reader.  Her books, though fiction, let the reader
see some of the things from our history with the Native Americans from their perspective. And the mysteries element is strongly plotted through out the story.

Dale Stapp 10-15-07