Winter Counts

Real Rating: 4.75* of five

WINNER OF THE BEST FIRST NOVEL ANTHONY AWARD FOR 2021! Virtual Bouchercon award ceremonies linked to at the above.

WINNER OF THE BEST INDIGENOUS WRITER at the 2021 High Plains Book Awards.

On The Guardian’s Best Thrillers of 2021 list

Review to come on Wednesday.
***
WEDNESDAY
Real Rating: 4.75* of five

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: This is a Brulé Lakota Winter Count:

This cultural tradition, extremely briefly summarized in a Wikipedia article, organizes this novel’s ideas. Virgil Wounded Horse, our aptly and prophetically named vigilante-cum-enforcer hero in this thriller, touches on this fascinating piece of (half) his ancestry’s sense of time and place often enough show more to make the title of the book emerge organically in the reader’s mind. Virgil muses at one point, “Winter counts were the calendar system used by the Lakota, but they weren't like modern ones. I'd loved the little pictures in the calendars, each image showing the most significant event from the past year.” He muses again, at a later point, “Winter counts. This was the winter of my sorrow, one I had tried to elude but which had come for me with a terrible cruelty.” I think both are ideas of how he, his world, and his sense of self, are in motion at all times. It makes his entire life spent in action make sense…he’s not a Lakota insider, like ex-girlfriend Marie Short Bear, whose ancestry is flawlessly pureblood and perfectly in tune with the power structure within the Rosebud Reservation. He’s not an insider in the white world, either, being a mixed-race outcast from its racist system. It’s been a blessing in that any curse can be turned into an advantage if you’re looking for a way to do it. He’s got a place enforcing justice outside white and Native American legal systems, as required.

What this means is that the character is perfect for a thriller that needs telling to get people to care about the problems heaped on Outsiders, Othered people, by all systems of government. The tribal justice system (arguably distorted by its necessary accommodation to white codes) as much as any other. Virgil is outside, and that is the perfect place to be when the upper echelon needs something done that won’t “look good.” The value of face, of taking things at face value, is something white people with our media obsession have raised to virtual apotheosis; it’s far from untrue of other cultures, however. Marie Little Bear’s tribal leadership position means he can’t directly do the effective thing against the drug cartels hooking Native kids on heroin, with the well-known tragic consequences.

Had the plague not touched Virgil’s nephew, hard, he wouldn’t have agreed to take on the violent and greedy and frankly evil people. But when it’s family, things look different, don’t they. What happens on the reservation has its roots in the not-distant city of Denver. Marie and Virgil set out to confront the ills of their corner of the world by going outside that corner, by bearding the lion in his den, and they are not surprisingly at some disadvantages there. It is as revealing to consider their troubles and issues within the white world of Denver as to examine the world of the reservation in promotion, tolerance, and perpetuation of toxic social maladjustment.

I’m impressed by the way this thriller uses its author’s straddled worlds…he’s Lakota and teaches Native American Studies at the Metropolitan State College of Denver, so clearly he’s quite adept at code-switching…as a full and integrated world for Virgil Wounded Horse. We’re not expected to see Virgil as a man out of place in two worlds, we’re expected to see a man discovering his place in his own world. It is a fine distinction, but an important one. Virgil is an outsider in each of those large, obvious social constructs. He is making his own world, one in which he is the norm, as in the end that is what we all must do to “fit in.” Where the world doesn’t have a place for you, make one.

That is the gift of this read to the reader. Join Virgil Wounded Horse in his thrilling world.

This post is the 1,000th on my blog! I’ve written many thousands of book reviews over the years of many truly enjoyable books. I’m very happy that, after eight and a half years, I’ve reached this milestone blog post with a review of a book I’m happy to recommend that you read as a Booksgiving treat to yourself. show less

On the Rosebud Reservation, in South Dakota, justice is elusive. Both spousal abuse and child abuse usually go unchecked, along with other offenses that the law can’t be bothered with. This is where Virgil Wounded Horse comes in. He is the local enforcer and will mete out justice as needed, normally for a reasonable fee. He barely makes ends meet but is proud of the service he supplies. When hard drugs start rolling into the reservation and his teenage nephew, who he is raising, becomes involved with some unsavory people, it becomes personal for Virgil. This leads him to Denver where the drugs are coming from and now he is dealing with the cartels.
This is a terrific debut. Along with the action and suspense it is also a social show more commentary on what modern life is like for a Native- trying to keep traditions, in a perilous, unjust world. show less

i'm not sure this quite qualifies as a mystery or a thriller or even just a novel either, but whatever it is, it is very very very well done. he writes well, he tells a good and engaging story, he has full and interesting characters, and he has a larger point that he's making. it's really everything that i look for in a book. it's not perfect, and there are a few instances where the writing wasn't as good or he stumbled just a tad, but in general, this is quite impressive, especially for a first book.

he manages to weave so much information about native history and lakota heritage, while not feeling like he's giving you a lecture or taking away from the story. he gives you this information in narration, in dialogue, in ceremony, in a show more book someone's read, in so many different ways. so it never feels like too much or is distracting. it's quite something.

i love that this is about the plot - can virgil stop heroin from coming into the rez, is nathan being set up or is he dealing pills - but it's even more about how virgil comes back into his native identity and heritage (and about lakota traditions more generally). the naming ceremony at the end for virgil and nathan made me cry.

there are many reasons that this book works so well, and many ways this book can appeal to different kinds of readers. a pretty tremendous first book. a real feat. show less

An outstanding mystery novel set on a Native American reservation in South Dakota. Loved the vividness of the characters and setting, and especially the sharply-observed commentary on native life and the sad state of justice in Indian county. Sure, the baddie was pretty easy to identify, and the plot felt rather familiar, but the story was fast-paced and thrilling, and the ending was satisfying. Looking forward to more from this author.

A generic crime noir plot distinguishes itself by being set on the Rosebud reservation of the Sicangu Lakota. Virgil Wounded Horse is a broke and always down-on-his-luck vigilante for hire in a place where law enforcement does not always deliver justice as criminals fall into the cracks between tribal and federal jurisdictions. He's hired to look into/run off some new drug dealers in the area, but the case becomes personal when a relative falls victim to their fentanyl-laced heroin.

Virgil is not much of an investigator; his toolbox is limited to slowly meandering around asking, "Have you seen this guy?" and clumsily breaking into places that rarely yield any clues. But even as he blunders through the case it is heartening to see him show more slowly rebuild his life by re-establishing and deepening connections with family, community, and his cast-aside spirituality. show less

If you picture Native Americans, what do you see? Do you see a people decimated by systemic racism, alcohol and drugs, and a deep and grinding poverty? Do you see shamans, powwows, and defenders of the Earth? Do you see dusty reservations and casinos? Do you see missing and murdered indigenous women, failed by a federal judicial system that dismisses their duty, leaving criminals unpunished or entirely unprosecuted and victims unavenged? All of these things are true and yet not even close to a full picture of the many different groups who fall under this designation. David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, has written a riveting novel that confronts and enlarges on life on the Rosebud Indian show more Reservation. Winter Counts is a thriller, a crime novel, and a Lakota cultural examination.

Virgil Wounded Horse is half Lakota, a recovering alcoholic, and a vigilante. When justice isn't done by federal or tribal courts, people pay Virgil to redress the wrongs. He punishes the rapists, thieves, and wife beaters that the law ignores. When Ben Short Bear, a councilman running for Tribal President, contacts him to investigate the sudden influx of heroin into the reservation, Virgil isn't sure he wants to get involved even though the payout would be big. Then Virgil's own nephew, 14 year old Nathan, who Virgil is raising after his sister's death, overdoses and almost dies. Now Virgil has no choice but to get involved. He and his ex, Maria Short Bear, Ben's daughter, head to Denver after the small time criminal who has hooked up with the big boys to bring heroin onto the reservation. This trip embroils Virgil and Maria in something much bigger, more insidious, and more personal than they ever imagined.

Virgil narrates his own story, remaining clear eyed about both the good and ill of his community on the reservation. He was bullied as a child for his mixed race and he still sees firsthand the economic disparity, the accepted corruption, and the failure in leadership that exists but he also sees the perseverence and connection of a community trying to save its young people, to improve everyone's lives, and to try to honor and maintain their culture, even if he himself is frequently skeptical of that culture. In Virgil, Weiden has created a character who recognizes the wrongs done to the Lakota people and who is invested in righting those wrongs in whatever way he can. He is both an insider and an outsider, which allows the reader to learn and grow with him. The descriptions of the secondary characters and life on the reservation fully round out the story. This is not really a thriller in the heart pounding sense, rather it is one that carefully peels back each layer of the plot deliberately, until the depth of the corruption and the fullness of the novel is exposed in all its complexity.

The book is a fast and engrossing read that feels like it could be the first in a series. It doesn't flinch from the truth of the ways in which the government and white American have failed the Native population or from the ways its own people do the same to themselves. It is thought provoking, violent, and gripping. Those who like their novels gritty and realistic will quite enjoy this. show less

WINTER COUNTS is an impressive debut novel from David Heska Wanbli Weiden. It’s a gritty and often dark crime thriller that follows Virgil Wounded Horse, a hired vigilante living on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. When tribal police and the feds fail to deliver justice, Virgil takes the law into his own hands. He finds himself personally involved in a dangerous case when his nephew falls prey to hard drugs being pushed on the reservation.

This was a compelling slow-burn mystery, as well as an eye-opening look at the hardships Indigenous people face in this country. Lakota traditions and history are woven throughout this story. I loved the well-drawn cast of characters. Virgil struggles with his Lakota identity, and I greatly show more enjoyed watching his character grow as he fought to save his nephew. show less