Summary
Old grudges, tribal traditions, and outside influences collide for a Kiowa woman as forces threaten her family, her tribe, and the land of her ancestors, in this own-voices debut perfect for fans of Winter Counts.
No one called her Mud in Silicon Valley. There, she was Mae, a high-powered professional who had left her Kiowa roots behind a decade ago. But a cryptic voice message from her grandfather, James Sawpole, telling her to come home sounds so wrong that she catches the …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781639101276 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1639101276 |
| Author: | D.M. Rowell |
| Publisher: | Crooked Lane Books |
| Imprint: | Crooked Lane Books |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 336 |
| Release Date: | 10 January 2023 |
| Weight: | 567g |
| Dimensions: | 144mm x 218mm |
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Critics Review
Praise for Never Name the Dead:
“Never Name the Dead weaves a tale of timely Native issues like fracking and poverty with a breathless mystery.”
—Buzzfeed
“[A] debut wrapped in Kiowa history, stories, and culture … Recommended for readers of David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s Winter Counts.”
—Library Journal
“Rowell’s Never Name the Dead is an impressive debut, charting a woman’s return from Silicon Valley to her roots, the Kiowa tribal land in Oklahoma, where she finds a divided tribe, land threatened by fracking, and her own grandfather missing and possibly framed for a crime she knows he didn’t commit. The novel then becomes a detective story with a deep sense of place and history. Rowell brings notes of poetry to the dark tale of corruption.”
—CrimeReads
“[Never Name the Dead] may join the ranks of Native American books along the veins of Tony Hillerman and Anne Hillerman’s Leaphorn/Chee mysteries.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Greed and murder face off against the power of traditional Native American wisdom and rituals in a gripping tale set in Oklahoma on a reservation fighting to preserve the Kiowa culture and way of life. Mystical and magical, D. M. Rowell’s debut novel puts her in the ranks of Tony Hillerman, with a resolute female sleuth whose name is Mud but whose vision, purified with sacred smoke, is crystal clear.”
—Eric Redman, award-nominated author of Bones of Hilo
“Oil frackers and regalia looters meet their match in Mae “Mud” Sawpole, a Silicon Valley exec and former college softball slugger who returns to her Kiowa homeland in Oklahoma to settle the score.”
—Kris Lackey, author of the Maytubby-Bond series
D.M. Rowell
D.M. Rowell (Koyh Mi O Boy Dah) Like her protagonist Mud, Rowell comes from a long line of Kiowa Storytellers. After a thirty-two-year career spinning stories for Silicon Valley startups and corporations with a few escapes creating award-winning independent documentaries, Rowell started a new chapter writing mysteries that share information about her Plains Indian tribe, the Kiowas. She enjoys life in California with her partner of thirty-seven years, their son and a feral gray cat.
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