Book: The Girl with Braided Hair by Margaret Coel

I was at Townsend visiting Maria and Richard last weekend, and Maria had this novel there, which she had picked up from the Pathfinder Library in Baldwin. I read most of it one afternoon, because I like books about Native Americans and I was in the mood for light reading. I didn't quite finish it, so I checked it out from Herrick Library and discovered the author has written more than a dozen similar books. I also picked up The Drowning Man.

The story takes place mostly on the Arapaho Wind River Indian reservation in Wyoming. It is a mystery: who killed Liz Plenty Horses? Her decomposed body is found 37 years after she was murdered. The women in town push to find out why and who killed her. There are several flashbacks and allusions to the AIM movement of the early 1970s with both the good and bad aspects presented in the dialogue of the characters in this book.

It is not a classic but it does immerse one, for a few hours, in the sky, open spaces, sunshine, cottonwoods and sage of the west, along with believable characters and a credible story.