Sigh - Margaret Coel At It Again

I had read a couple of the early Wind River Mysteries involving Father John O'Malley and attorney Vicky Holden.

They are interesting characters. He is a recovering alcoholic assigned to a reservation mission. She is an Arapaho who struggles with trying to balance her Native American roots and her functioning in a White world.

Early on, it was clear that they had romantic feelings for each other. He remains true to his vocation, but there is constant tension.

Okay. I can see that. It made me wonder if Coel, who identifies as a Catholic herself, had such an attachment or temptation. How many Catholic women fall in love with their unobtainable priest? 

That may have no basis in reality - I don't know enough about her to say it is true. But it is constantly there in the books.

I enjoyed them enough to be open to reading more of the books in the series. 

So when I happened to see one of the later books in the series in the library - Killing Custer - I decided to give it read. I was looking for something lighter, and a decent mystery fit the bill.

In this 17th book in the series they clearly still have feelings for each other  - Vicky most obviously. I'm not sure how much time has passed in the series' universe, but it logically has been years, and as I read this entry I kept thinking, come on, get over it.

And now Vicky, while still thinking about the priest, is nevertheless living with a guy. Sigh. The lack of morality in the secular world intrudes. 

 Meanwhile, Vicky and Father once again stupidly place themselves in a situation where their lives are in danger, and they are saved only by the grace of God and the novelist's pen. In all those years, after those 16 previous mysteries, haven't they learned anything?

I found that frustrating.

It was a decent mystery - though I did figure out who was behind the crimes about a third of the way through. To be honest, I found some parts of it a little implausible, and the book as a whole was disappointing. 

Interestingly, Coel only wrote three more books in the series. The twentieth book in the series, Winter's Child (2016), was declared to be the final one. Perhaps Coel herself found that she had stretched the characters as far as they could go. Or maybe it was a matter of her being in her late 70's by this point!

So I might check out Winter's Child to bring the series to a close. But I don't feel an overwhelming desire to read any of the other books at this point.

Pax et bonum