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In this fifth Sean Stranahan mystery, there is much more to learn about Native American pishkuns (or buffalo jumps) and the western politics surrounding the buffalo than there is to learn about fly fishing. McCafferty does an excellent job of weaving the information into the plot, so there is never a sense of lecturing. But unless these are areas of knowledge (s)he already possesses, the reader will learn much from the book.
The book opens as a Native American man discovers dead and dying buffalo at the bottom of a cliff. As he mercifully dispatches the suffering animals left alive, he discovers an unharmed buffalo calf. His removal of the calf sets in motion a political battle in this part of Montana where Yellowstone National Park, Native American lands, and ranchlands abut one another. This battle plays at the edges of the book's plot, which is mainly concerned with determining whether the death of a man involved in driving the buffalo off the cliff was murder and, if so, finding the identity of the murder.
The local sheriff, Martha, who is also Stranahan's ex-lover, is discouraged from pursuing the case. However, she is very supportive of Sean's involvement when a woman, Ida, approaches Stranahan about looking for her childhood heartthrob who has been sighted in the area. The dead man is Native American, as is Ida's elusive man, and it soon becomes clear that there is a connection between the two men. Who else was involved in the pishkun, and why there isn't a greater effort being made to determine his killer, are important questions for Stranahan to answer even after Ida stops employing his services. This is especially true after another murder connected to the buffalo takes place.
Sean and Martha are both reflective about their relationships and their loneliness in this book, and it appears that a bridge between the two is being built over the chasm that had opened in previous books in the series. McCafferty's writing about relationships and characters is both insightful and lyrical. His writing about Montana transports the reader, and he is able to fully engage the reader in a suspenseful plot, as well. This excellent book could be read as a standalone, but the reader is likely to then want to go back to the earlier books in the series to find out more about Martha and Sean's relationship.
§ Sharon Mensing is the Head of School of Emerald Mountain School, an independent school in the mountains of Colorado, where she lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, June 2016
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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