The Dream Stalker

Margaret Coel has a plot that immediately raises my hackles. If nuclear waste needs to be taken care of, it needs to be taken care of where it was created, not shipped off "out in the middle of nowhere" for other people to deal with. Same thing goes for junked electronics, or any other waste created by society anywhere around the world. This program of avoidance is rife with dangers, and Coel deals with them in fine fashion.

Once again it's Father John and Vicky who bring the story to life. Although the two are attracted to each other, The Dream Stalker doesn't revolve around that one fact. Father John is dealing with yet another new priest sent to help him, and he's learning that what is to him a place of redemption and peace isn't show more thought of in the same light by the Church hierarchy. The constant struggle to keep the mission monetarily afloat adds an immediacy to the book as well.

What adds "zing" is the very real sense of danger to Vicky Holden, who refuses to be silent about the nuclear waste storage facility. The debate has brought the media and environmentalists into an already fraught situation, and Coel kept me worrying about Vicky. There is no safe place for the Arapaho lawyer-- even among her own people.

I came to this series late, but I'm enjoying every minute of Coel's plots, setting, and characters. Bring on the next book! show less

Coel deals with the nuclear waste -vs- the environment issue. The two main characters deal with life in their own ways. Plot is pretty simple, Father John helps investigate a murder and lawyer Vicki dives into the nuclear waste proposal. Lots of jobs for the Arapaho are balanced with hazardous waste...reminiscent of the Navajo uranium miners. Author treats the subject very well...I'll be back for book #4.

A proposed nuclear storage area on the reservation creates much conflict among tribal members. Current murders awaken concerns about a crime from the past,; long thought resolved. Vicky and Father John, struggle with their personal relationship as they pursue the deaths under the shadows cast by the conflicting views engendered by the impending nuclear decision.

I enjoy Margaret Coel and the settings she uses for her Father John O'Malley series. I had a bit of trouble with this because of the relationship between Father John and Vicky Holden. I know it was meant to make people uncomfortable because the main players were uncomfortable but having been raised Catholic it probably bothered me more than someone who was not brought up in that culture.

The plot was fairly simple, Father John is called out one night to a remote (well, everything is pretty remote on the Wind River reservation) location to tend to a man who said he wants to get something off his chest, and that he is dying. By the time Father John gets there the man is dead, but not of natural causes, he has been shot in the face.

At the show more same time Vicky is involved in trying to stop a Chicago company from building a nuclear waste dump on the reservation. This makes her very unpopular because the company is promising jobs, lots and lots of jobs, as well as long term employment. The Council is for the idea, most of the people on the reservation are for the idea, making Vicky very unpopular.

So, does Father John's dead man tie in with the nuclear waste dump? Only time will tell.

I had an inkling at one point that I might know the killer but Coel was very good at distracting me to the point where I forgot about this person. Interesting ending with a lot of loose ends, glad that there are more in the series to keep reading about these fascinating people. show less

Father John discovers the body of a man whose face was shot off. It's happening at the same time Vicky Holden is opposing the placement of a nuclear waste facility on the Wind River Reservation. Soon others are found dead in the same manner. The Bureau of Indian Affairs chief, local law enforcement, Father John, and Vicky "team up" once again to solve this case. I listened to the audio book version read by Stephanie Brush. I find this series enjoyable for listening. Father John is a likeable, but slightly flawed, priest. Vicky is more of an activist than I am, but her character seems to fit well into the series. The recurring law enforcement characters are enjoyable as well.

In each of the books of this series, the writing gets smoother, and the characters more developed it. In this book, the relationship of Father O'Malley and Vicky Holden continues to develop, despite the fact that they are seemingly on different sides of the contentious issue of whether a casino should be built on the reservation. Someone has already died, and the death appears to be somehow linked to the potential outside investment. The mystery is convoluted enough that one can't guess the solution too soon.

Reservation is in uproar over proposed nuclear storage facitity as Father O'Malley discovers body of mudered cowboy…