Growing up, my favorite teachers were ones who dispensed knowledge with a storyteller’s spoon. Mr. Caputo, for example, would recount fascinating tales of heartbreak, courage, compassion and fortitude. His history lessons stuck with me, and come test time, I easily regurgitated back the facts.
Margaret Coel is a lot like Mr. Caputo (though Coel’s prettier and a much sharper dresser). Readers learn from Coel’s Wind River mystery series, set among the Arapahos on Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation. Interesting facts about Arapaho history and culture are scattered throughout Coel’s fictional works, but the historical and cultural tidbits never slow readers down.
In fact, once engrossed in a Wind River mystery, it’s difficult for anything to slow readers down. While reading Coel’s books, I’ve personally been known to warn my children, “Don’t interrupt me unless you’ve got a bone protruding through your flesh.”
The first book in the Wind River series, “The Eagle Catcher,” follows the series’ admirable protagonists, Father John O’Malley and Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden, as they investigate two reservation murders. The story is engrossing, and the characters and setting stuck with me days after I turned the last page.
Thankfully, there are several other books in the series. I asked Coel in an email interview if she had a favorite. This is her answer:
“As for my favorite, I'm always madly in love with the book I am in the process of writing. It always seems the most fantastic. But I admit to being partial to ‘The Girl with Braided Hair,’ ‘Eye of the Wolf,’ and ‘Wife of Moon.’”
FYI, my favorite book in the series is “The Girl with Braided Hair,” but I like everything I’ve read from Coel. It’s possible that I’m partial to Coel because she’s a native Coloradoan, but more likely it’s because she’s a great storyteller. And a teacher of sorts, too.
For a complete list of Coel’s novels, check out her website at http://www.margaretcoel.com/.
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