Wife of Moon, by Margaret Coel

Retrieved from: someone else's library
0425198146, 2004
Suggested by: The List
My Ratings: 9 Merit, 9 Interest, 6 Fun

First of all, this played completely to my interests: Western history, photography, spies...

Second of all, I'm heartily sick of Vicki and Father John's emotional turmoil. They need to move on with their lives. The whole series has become completely contrived. The characters are stagnating.

Thus spake I.

But anyway, the plot is good: Edward Curtis, famous "Indian photographer" staged a battle in 1907, an attack on an Arapahoe village, in order to document history. In the course of the mock battle, the Indian wife of a white rancher was shot. Subsequently, two of the Arapahoe men pretending to attack the village were hanged.

Fast-forward nearly 100 years. A close high-school friend of Vicki's is under suspicion of murdering his wife. A Cheney-esque local rancher--the descendent of that same white rancher whose wife was killed in 1907--is trying to make political hay by appearing at the Mission. The Mission's museum director has disappeared, and her creepy former-CIA agent husband is creeping around looking for her. Of course, all of these things are connected (because this is a mystery, remember).

The outcome is interesting. I mean, it's fairly obvious what happened in 1907, though the motives don't become clear until late in the book. It's quite clear that, once again, the new assistant at the Mission is unsuitable. And it's becoming imperative that either Father John and Vicki need to have sex, or put more than 10 miles of distance between themselves. They won't do the former, and she's tried the latter. It's his turn to go somewhere else, although it may be too late to save the series at this point.

Oh, well. I think this is the latest: I'm caught up! Until next month when the newest installment arrives in stores.