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Why do writers populate their books with unpleasant characters? They're not funny, I don't want to be around them and they make me want to read faster or quit reading to get away. Medawar, the author of a very interesting historical series has chosen, with this book, to offer a current mystery, and it doesn't work at all for me. The lead character is not well delineated, the other characters are rude, whiny, loud, over-emotional or nosy and there is little sense in this story. It was a major disappointment. "Tracker" as she is known is an artist who has come back to the reservation under family pressure and lives on her own, sort of. She was involved with the police chief who apparently cheated on her (we never get his side of the story and he is apparently baffled that she threw him out) but she's still called on when someone is found murdered. Since "everyone knows" who did it (boy, now that's police work), they immediately go after the suspect, who taught "Tracker" how to track. There's a side story about logging on the rez where there shouldn't be logging, and lots of people like BIA chiefs and tribal chiefs and cops from other places running around to solve this murder. I almost forgot who was murdered in all the running around. The tracking stuff is sort of interesting, but nothing is really followed through on. If Karen Charbonneau is so fabulous that three different men are in love with her, it is not shown adequately. If any of these men are grown-ups, that isn't exactly articulated well either. They whine, they are baffled a lot, they make eyes at "Tracker" at inappropriate times, but they never give her a reason why she should bother with any of them. Her dog alternates between whining too and ignoring commands, but she sure is better off with the dog. The police dispatcher doesn't know how to shut up and when he finally is told to, he "pouts". Everyone seems to spend time either screaming at each other or loudly whispering (there are lots of passages about how someone is whispering but everyone hears it.) If the "everyone knows everyone's business" part of this book is supposed to be charming, it's not. The small town nature of the rez doesn't show up well - it just portrays endlessly prying people getting into everyone's business. And the cover of this book brings me back to the bad old days of another publisher who put out the worst covers in creation. It's a mess - I don't normally notice cover art, but this was bad and does not help the book. This is a mess of a book by an author I know can do better, and I'm sorry she didn't present either the mystery or the people in a better light.
Reviewed by Andi Shechter, July 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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