For Denver-area readers who like to learn local history through enjoyable mystery fiction, “Blood Memory” is highly recommended. Journalist turned professional historian turned prolific novelist Margaret Coel, a Colorado native living in Boulder, is especially knowledgeable about the state’s American Indian legacy.
Her 13 previous books delve into that legacy, emphasizing the Arapaho tribe with substance and style. In “Blood Memory,” Coel expands her oeuvre, with a new twist.
Her previous novels have featured Vicky Holden and John O’Malley as protagonists. Holden is an Arapaho lawyer. O’Malley is a Jesuit priest. They solve murders and other crimes, sometimes together, sometimes separately.
In the new novel, the lead character is a journalist, newspaper reporter Catherine McLeod. (Holden makes a cameo appearance on page 262.) A dogged, talented investigator, McLeod is delving into a proposal for a gambling casino near the Denver airport, advertised as helping direct income to the needy Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes, exploited by the federal and state governments over and over.
McLeod is suspicious, believing that a large portion of the proposed casino’s income will enrich already wealthy non-Indian entrepreneurs. As McLeod investigates, a man tries to kill her at her home. But instead he murders McLeod’s friend who had also served as her divorce attorney.
Although distraught, McLeod at first feels no permanent fear, assuming the murderer, who escaped, had chosen her randomly as a rape victim. Soon, though, events suggest the murderer is a contract killer determined to end her research on the casino investigation. The trouble is, McLeod cannot figure out exactly why she has become the target, given that other journalists are trying to advance the casino story. Nor can she figure out precisely who would hire an assassin.
McLeod changes her appearance and takes other measures to protect herself while she continues her investigation. She hopes police, especially a caring, competent homicide detective named Nick Bustamante, will catch the assassin before she becomes the next victim.
McLeod’s former husband, a wealthy real estate developer from a prominent Denver family, offers to buy her protection. McLeod is reluctant to reconcile with him and worried about becoming indebted by accepting his money. She does not realize at first that his family might be involved in the financing of the casino.
Revealing the outcome would spoil the reading experience. The path to the conclusion, however, is lined not only with fascinating Colorado history, but also with insights into the daily workings of police, Indian tribes, business tycoons and journalists.
Steve Weinberg has assembled a large collection of novels featuring journalists. It is housed at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Fiction
Blood Memory by Margaret Coel, $24.95
