Book Review: Winter's Child by Margaret Coel

Winter's Child: A Wind River Mystery by Margaret Coel, September 6, 2016,  courtesy of Berkley

Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley discover a centuries-old mystery tied to a modern day crime on the Wind River Reservation.

Plot: An Arapaho couple hire an attorney, Clint Hopkins, to help them adopt a child they had been caring for over five years. The child had been left as an infant on their doorstep and the couple had taken her in. But while working on the adoption case, the attorney is killed in a suspicious hit-and-run, and Vicky Holden steps in to solve a crime involving the past and the mystery of the child.

My comments: The book has an intriguing and suspenseful plot. It appears to be a straightforward request from the lawyer, Clint Hopkins, to Vicky, asking her to be a cocounsel in the adoption of a five-year-old girl by an Arapaho couple. But the case quickly involves murder, and Vicky is left on her own to solve the mystery. The ending, which I won't give away, is not a clear cut solution, but realistic.

My rating: 5/5

Book beginning:

Snow had fallen all day, dense cotton fluff that cocooned the brick bungalow in a white world and obscured the small sign: Vicky Holden, Attorney at Law. Now the snow dissolved into a white dusk as Vicky drove through the side streets of Lander, tires bumping over ruts and ridges. The heater kicked into gear, and warm air streamed into the frosty cold that gripped the Ford. She hunched over the steering wheel. She was late.

Page 56:

 "Come on, Uncle John." She stopped in her tracks and was looking up at him. "No one in my generation believes in fairy tales. Ever after just doesn't happen. It never did, really. Your generation was the last to cling to that belief...."

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Book Review: The Perfect Suspect by Margaret Coel

Title: The Perfect Suspect: A Catherine McLeod Mystery
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published September 6, 2011 by Berkley Publishing
Objective rating: 4.5/5

"Who are you?" she said. "I can't do anything unless I know your name."
"No names. I told you what I saw. You take it from here."
"Listen," Catherine began, but the line had gone dead. A hollow space had opened between her and whoever had been on the other end. (ch. 4)

Comments: An unusual plot that worked well for me. We know from the first page who shot David Mathews, the leading candidate in the Colorado governor race, and we find out it is his lover, a detective and therefore a very unlikely suspect. Detective Ryan Beckman finds herself in charge of solving the very crime she committed and works hard to cast suspicion on the perfect suspect - the victim's estranged wife. Reporter Catherine McLeod receives a frantic call from an unknown woman who says she saw the detective at the home of the victim after the fatal shots were fired. Catherine's and the woman's lives are in danger when Detective Ryan Beckman finds out that they are too close to the truth.

I also liked learning about newspaper policies regarding informants and their privacy and their care in printing facts rather than conjecture or details that can't be corroborated. I gave this 4.5/5 for suspense and plot.

Source: A copy of the novel was provided by the publisher. My rating was not influenced by my receiving a complimentary copy for review.