The Spirit Woman

Wind River Reservation #6

by Margaret Coel

According to legend, Sacajawea — the Native American woman who helped guide the Lewis and Clark expedition through the American wilderness — is buried on the Wind River Reservation. Now, a college professor — and longtime friend of Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden — has disappeared while seeking the truth behind the legend. Vicky and Father John O’Malley soon discover that her missing friend is linked to another female historian who also vanished on the reservation — while researching Sacajawea twenty years ago. The answer to the mystery of the missing scholars may lie in the pages of Sacajawea’s hidden memoirs — and with a culprit who will do anything to ensure they’re never found…

Genres: Mystery, Native American, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Westerns, Audiobook, Native Americans

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Margaret Coel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of the acclaimed novels featuring Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden, as well as several works of nonfiction. Originally a historian by trade, she is considered an expert on the Arapaho Indians.

Reviews

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It is a book about violence towards women - domestic violence. It is a book about wanting to believe, refusing to accept the facts (even when they're staring you in the face) whether it's for the love of a man or a love for history. Also, it's about the need to belong somewhere, about wanting to hold the broken pieces together even as they crumble in your hands. Even for the men, it's about losing yourself in drink, desperation and turning to violence in order to subdue (or struggling with these things). It's about self-absolution and excuses - how it's always the other person who's at fault; they don't try hard enough to make things right.
Sounds heavy? No, this is an easy read, a "detective" story that deals with these issues in a light-handed manner and whilst the theme IS a little contrived at times it doesn't spoil the story - it wakes you up and makes you think about the issues concerned.
I believe that all works of art are constructs whose real role is to reinforce our understanding of the world. They don't have to be mind-blowing masterpieces and they don't have to shake the world - they can just remind us of things we knew but forgot because the world we live in now is so different, so comfortable, so safe... but that's not true for everyone, everywhere...
... and who said that education and self-improvement has to be hard work?

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Father John's time on the reservation draws to a close as the provincial orders him to complete his doctorate back East so he can teach.The new priest arrives on a motorcycle and shows interest in Arapaho oral stories. Vicky is back with her abusive former spouse, but she's already beginning to see it will not work. Father John finds a body. Vicky's friend, a white woman historian, comes to the reservation to locate an alleged manuscript containing valuable information on Sacajawea. An Arapaho graduate student is also interested in the work. Vicky's friend disappears after her ex-boyfriend shows up and threatens her. Father John discovers the memoir which led Vicky's friend to the reservation in the mission's archives and gets it into the FBI agent's hands. Father John receives a call about the discovery of the woman's body and calls Vicky. Gradually the two of them realize what is going on. Good installment in the series with a lot of interesting historical elements. (3.5 stars)

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this is book 6 of Margaret Coel’s Wind River Reservation Mysteries, and my first experience with this author, The Spirit Woman caught and kept my attention from beginning to end. I have a great interest in Native American cultures so I decided that reading a fictional account of a contemporary setting such as The Wind River Reservation, an Arapaho and Shoshone reservation in Wyoming would be a good selection to add to my library. I am pleased to say my choice of Margaret Coel’s The Spirit Woman is a good choice. Before the story begins, there is a quotation about Sacajawea, the Native American Shoshone woman who accompanied The Lewis and Clark Expedition to the West Coast and The Pacific Ocean. I was intrigued. The characters I met are well-written ones, and the setting so descriptively drawn that I felt that I was on the reservation with these ‘new friends’. I truly like Father O’Malley who runs the St. Francis Mission that serves the Wind River Resevation and his dog, Walks-on-Three-Legs. This is my first book by Margaret Coel as I have stated, but it shall not be my last, and it is has nothing to do with where the author lives, Boulder, Colorado, where I happened to get my undergraduate degree at The University of Colorado! :) 4 stars.

[Bobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all the Wind River series up to now, and chose this one to review because of the issue of abused women. Coel's handling of this sensitive issue is accurate and should touch many who have not understood how abuse affects women. That she uses her talents as a historian to tell the story of Sacajawea from the Indian perspective is a very valuable thing for all of us to consider. Her characters are so real that I feel like I have come to know them and would recognize them on the street, especially Father John.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this novel, Sacajawea is said to have lived a long life. She is buried on the Wind River reservation where Fr. John O'Malley pastors his flock for the Catholic Arapaho people. A rumor has circulated in the area for years that Sacajawea told her life story to a an Indian Agent's wife in the 1880s. The written record was destroyed in a fire. When Fr. John's lawyer friend, Vicky Holden, learns from her old friend and history professor, Laura, that Sacajawea's story survived the fire, things start to happen to show that someone does not want the story to be found.

The Sacajawea thread is interwoven with three women in the story who experience abuse from men: Vicky and her client, and the professor, Laura. The thread starts with Sacajawea's own abuse and how she was able to leave her abusive husband, and then we see how the other abused women in the story deal with it.

Along with the search for the Sacajawea story and abused women, Fr. John has been ordered to take a new posting at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This causes quite a stir among the parishioners.

Coel deftly interweaves all the above elements together to keep this story moving forward. I did figure out who the bad person was, but I could not figure out if Fr. John would go or stay.

The relationship between Fr. John and Vicky became much more overt in this novel. Fr. John actually thought at one point that he could leave the priesthood, do something else and be with Vicky. However, it seemed to be a fleeting thought; it was not fully developed. This is usually what happens in these novels. Vicky and Fr. John just dance around their feelings for each other.

This is a story that kept my interest. I would like to see some humor in her stories, though. No one ever seems to be very happy. I would like to see some lighter moments in them.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting entry in Margaret Coel's Wind River Series combining the questions into the history of Sacajawea & the underlying social & cultural issue of spousal abuse...2 historians, decades apart, disappear on the reservation while researching Sacajawea & Father John O'Malley & Arapahoe Lawyer Vicky Holden are pulled into that investigation with Fr. John's impending transfer to Marquette University...Having visited the Sacajawea grave site at Fort Washakie, the Wind River Reservation & Lander while vacationing last year, it was fun following their footsteps...another 1 of the wonderful things about this series is the respectful treatment of Fr. John's priesthood...He's real, struggling with all things we struggle with: our faith, duty,& honor...he's given a warm. caring "humanity" & isn't treated as some self righteous bigot or some sexual pervert...finally an author who gets it!...Good Stuff!!!

[Irena Pasvinter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting plot based both on native American history and the modern life on the reservation; well-developed and engaging characters. I would have given this book 5 stars if not the unrealistic timing problem. Somehow in this series often everything happens at once, and this book is a perfect example (a bit of a spoiler next): Father John's dog has to discover the body of a woman who dissapeared twenty years ago practically on the same day that another woman arrives to the area to continue the disappeared woman's research.

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one got a little heavy for me with all the abuse. The back and forth of whether wife beaters can change was wierd and confusing. I did find the idea of the "will to believe" was interesting. The climactic scence of Vicky and Father John was a bit much for me too. However, I have ordered the next in the series.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with her earlier books, this combines fiction with some historical background. In and among the murder mystery, though, this one has a lot more emphasis on domestic abuse than some of the earlier ones in the series.

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps 4.5 stars.

Did the Arapahos (or another tribe) keep written records of Sacajawea's memoirs?
The violence she suffered at her (first) husband's hands is mirrored in the lives of women, both Native American and Caucasian in this book.

Another really good whodunnit in this series.

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another terrific addition to this series. It just gets better and better. This was "can't put down" read with two women following the same trail 20 years apart and a third soon to follow. Coel also does a wonderful job balancing the emotional turmoil between Vicky and Father John.

[Cathy Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been much too long since I've picked up one of Margaret Coel's Wind River mysteries, and The Spirit Woman was such a pleasure to read. Coel always seems to find a fascinating aspect of Native American or Western history to build her stories upon, and this time it's Sacajawea, the remarkable teenager who, with a baby strapped to her back and dealing with an abusive husband, guided Lewis and Clark. Proving that Sacajawea survived and died in old age on the Wind River Reservation among her people would be a coup for any historian, but it can't be just any proof. Historians want written documented evidence. Oral histories will not do. Rumors of Sacajawea's written memoirs are a magnet for both female college professors who have disappeared on the reservation.

The subject of abusive relationships is a major theme in The Spirit Woman, but for those readers who may find the subject too distressing, rest assured that Coel never resorts to any sort of graphic violence. It's what living under such circumstances can do to women that is the author's focus, and she deftly weaves this into the story.

The whodunit was easy for me to deduce, but then I don't read mysteries just to see how good I am at solving crimes. For me, characterization and setting mean even more, and Coel's series has both in abundance. There's the attraction between Father John O'Malley and attorney Vicky Holden. There's how residents of the reservation react to a historian nosing around and asking questions. But even more important, there's the fact that O'Malley's boss has decided that it's time for O'Malley to move on to a different parish. His replacement shows up almost before O'Malley has a chance to hang up the phone. John is highly respected on the reservation. How are the people going to react to his leaving? The actions of the elders should make you smile.

One of the things that kept me glued to the pages was trying to figure out how O'Malley got to stay. Let's face it... this is the sixth book in a twenty-book series, and they're all called Wind River mysteries. Father John has to stay, right? I was happy to see that my solution wasn't the right one (not that it was violent or anything, just wrong).

This is a series to savor, particularly if you love intelligent writing. The characters and the setting sing. What readers can learn about reservation life and the West is fascinating. If you haven't sampled the Wind River mysteries, I highly recommend them. Due to character development, I would suggest that you begin with the first book, The Eagle Catcher. It will be the start of a beautiful reading relationship.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early on I realized who the murderer would probably be and that the gun left with Father John would be used. But you don't read these books for the crime, but for the characters and Arapaho culture. There was a theme of women being undervalued and abused throughout this mystery. It really didn't matter the culture or the era. There was also a nod to the discussion of who owns whose history. Can a white woman write a history of a figure from a North American Indian culture? Should she? Now my gripes. A capable, although ruthless man suddenly turns into a screaming out of control nut case. Vicki is always going off on her own to drive to some remote cabin to confront someone quite possibly implicated in whatever murder is being investigated--and Father John isn't much better. Plus the love that cannot be expressed between the lawyer and the priest is starting to wear thin. Why are they forever touching each other? Neither of them seems to need to comfort anyone else with a touch of the arm or a hand on the shoulder. I think if they could just recognize each other's strengths and contribution to life on the reservation and leave the frustrated love to some other lesser mystery, I, for one, would be happier.

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed these books. A fascinating culture to be a part of....I wish there was a bit more of that and of Vicki's relationship to her ancestry. I know little of the Arapahoe people (but in fairness, I know a lot about the PNW First Nations, so not a complete indigenous ignoramus!) and would love to know more. Perhaps these books will be the impetus. Father John is a lovely portrayal of a very real priest. Struggling with his desires for love, for temptations, I also really enjoy the priest. He's very real and But maybe that is yet to come in the books I haven't read. As a Christian, I get tired of the truly evil priests, truly manipulating evangelical priests, truly sanctimonious priests, truly naive and bumbling priests and so on. He is a very real and sensitive character. Most clergy care deeply about their people and want to do their best for them. Despite his being offered an out back to academia, he realizes that is not as "real" as what he has now. Probably a minor point, but it's nice to see a whole portrait of a good man, rather than one more caricature.

[Wanda Hargrove · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura Simmons a historian comes to the reservation to finish the definitive biography on Sacajewea which was started twenty years earlier by another historian who disappeared. Vicky Holden is a friend of Laura's and introduces her to fellow historian and pastor Father John O'Malley. They discover that sometimes some things should never be discovered after Father John's dog Walks-On-Three-Legs finds the skeleton of a woman not far from St. Francis mission that was buried twenty years earlier. The only problem is the woman was beaten to death, now Laura is missing and Vicky fears the worst. Add in that The Provincial, Father John's boss, is ordering him to leave the mission in the hands of a Harley riding anthropologist named Father Kevin. The elders don't want Father John to leave, with all these distractions how can they find Laura, only they hope she's alive. Just another day on the reservation.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Coel's work was a happy recent discovery for me that made we want to read others in this series, which is set on the Wind River Indian reservation. (The reservation was also the setting for a very good 2018 movie, Wind River, which dealt with some of the same themes as Coel's novels.)

Her protagonists are a priest assigned to the local mission and a native woman who has become a lawyer and returned home to the reservation.

This particular book is about two murders, 20 years apart, of women scholars researching Sacajawea, the Shoshone woman who helped guide the Lewis and Clark expedition. Both are convinced that a document survives relating some of Sacagawea's experiences. Who would want to kill them for that? Domestic partner abuse is also a major theme in this book.

Lots of drama and suspense.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besides being a white woman bringing Arapaho and neighboring nations' culture into my awareness through her fiction, Margaret Coel is specifically elevating the role of women. I am not only talking about her heroine, attorney Vicky Holden, and other contemporary women who leave bad marriages, escape abuse, and produce healthy families and productive careers. In this book, Sacagawea becomes more than a footnote to the Lewis & Clark expedition or a face on a dollar coin: she is an explorer with a biography and history of her own, and I appreciate that.

The mystery itself is all about history and who gets to write it. I can't say anything else without spoiling it. The ongoing saga of Father O'Kelly and Vicky Holden takes a hesitant step forward, too.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It is a hard hitting book about domestic violence set against the historical backdrop of a search for the lost memoirs of Sacajawea. I always enjoy the historical aspects that Coel brings to her work. Coel accurately depicts the refusal of some women to leave abusive mates and the forlorn hope that they will change. Instead of the grey area and over sensitivity of the extremes of the "Me Too" movement we have a story that depicts the harsh reality of violence toward women. Men can be pigs and the behavior should not be condoned. But beatings, murders, and rapes should not be confused with piggish behavior. They are brutal crimes.

I recommend this book to those interested in the series and anyone looking at issues related to domestic violence.

[Brian Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coel handles native tribal environment with care similar to Hillerman, but this title is set during a Colorado winter so the natural beauty that adds so much to Hillermans' titles is weak. Fair story. Main characters seem a bit more obsessive than analytical or clever. I liked the commitments of the Shoshone characters to Father John, their priest, to each other and to their past. Many of the main female characters had abusive partners. I guess the frequency of abusive men could have been a red herring around the actual villain, but I found the excessively high frequency (probably 60% of the female characters) of women abused by their partners to be a bit repetitive. I look forward to reading more of Coel.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to legend, Sacajawea—the Native American woman who helped guide the Lewis and Clark expedition through the American wilderness—is buried on the Wind River Reservation. Now, a college professor—and longtime friend of Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden—has disappeared while seeking the truth behind the legend.Vicky and Father John O’Malley soon discover that her missing friend is linked to another female historian who also vanished on the reservation—while researching Sacajawea twenty years ago. The answer to the mystery of the missing scholars may lie in the pages of Sacajawea’s hidden memoirs—and with a culprit who will do anything to ensure they’re never found…

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories about the Lewis and Clark guide, Sacajawea, form the backdrop of this sixth book in the Wind River series. As John O’Malley discovers the skeleton while out walking his dog, so too arrives a scholar friend of Vicky Holden, the attorney. Of course, all hell breaks loose, and Vicky and John are once again joined in uncovering the identity of the remains, helping the scholar learn more about the “memoirs” left by a Shoshone agent, dealing with Vicky’s abusive ex-husband, and finding out who committed two murders twenty years apart. There is quite a lot packed into this novel, but the writing is good, and the characters are compelling.

[Melissa Howard · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't speak for Native Americans, but there was a passage that felt really squicky. The white professor had just found out that a Shoshone doctoral student was researching Sacagawea as well. She figured that she could convince the custodian of the memoirs that a professional historian should have them over a student. The optics of a white person taking part of an indigenous person's own heritage is just awful, and I'm surprised it was in there. Probably a side effect of the writer being white and not First Nations.

Also, I really hate when the main character clocks something odd and decides to brush it off. TSTL moment at the end.

[Lkowalczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 6th book in Ms. Coel's Wind River Reservation series. So far, it's my favorite. If you like/love Tony Hillerman, you're going to love this series. Her main characters are Fr. John O'Malley, priest, reformed alcoholic & Vicki Holden, native Arapahoe, lawyer, formerly in an abusive marriage are such fully rendered characters that you will immediately love them. I'm a firm believer in starting with the first book and moving forward from there. The story lines are well developed and the characters never cease to amaze and grow. Well worth your time.

[Adrianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was inspired to give the series a try as Margaret Coel is this year's author at the 2019 annual fundraising luncheon of the Friends of the Jefferson County Public Library (Colorado). Set in the Wind River, Wyoming area, as similar to the Longmire series, readers will enjoy following Father John O'Malley and Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden grapple with love, death, betrayal, culture, history, and a mystery that goes all the way back to Sacajawea. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/friends-...

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley mystery. I have enjoyed mysteries set in Native American communities - especially Tony Hillerman. I still liked the setting and Native people in this novel, but was sad that abuse of women played such a major role in the story. I will seek out earlier mysteries in the series. ( No access to the library has led to finding books that can be downloaded, but not necessarily in the order I would prefer. ) Still, thank heavens for streaming!! Kristi & Abby Tabby

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mystery wrapped around Sacajawea historical fiction. Coel does an excellent job weaving the challenges and issues of the Native Americans. However, the theme primarily is about violence towards women...including Vicki Holden, one of the main characters. It's also about belonging somewhere, in this case on the Wind River Reservation, as Fr John is threatened with an assignment to Milwaukee. You know that he doesn't go there because there are eight more books in this series that can't be done from Milwaukee :-)

[Stephanie Tanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

this mystery set on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, centers of the lost memoirs of Sacajawea. The death of a history professor twenty years earlier in mysterious circumstances, is brought to life with the arrival of another historian in search of the same Sacajawea quest.
Father John and lawyer Vicky Holden are again immersed in solving this mystery when the second historian goes missing.

These characters and the setting among the Arapaho is a favorite series.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author did a good job with some difficult social issues, but the way she always has two things happen at once that are completely related but without one causing the other is aggravating, especially when the solution would be so easy. Just have the discovery of the body cause the other person to come to the reservation because she thinks she might know who the body was. Coincidences do happen, but dang.

[Juan Rivera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why when we fall in love do we want to believe in empty promises and do not accept the obvious when they are lying to us?

And it happens the other way around, a real love can be questioned and doubted by all the things that happened to us in the past.

In this book, believing led to the death of two women, in a case that shows sadness and psychological difficulties in a conquered and subjugated indigenous people in half of the United States.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found myself comforted by the narrator's voice and listened to more audiobooks of this series than I expected to. When I came to one with a different voice actor, I was a little upset and switched it off. I don't have a lot of series I follow, and it was nice to be in the same world with the same characters. Albeit a little simplistic and, in this book, hilariously concerned with academia.