MURDER ON THE RED CLIFF REZ

Moving away from the 1800s setting of The Ft. Larned Incident (2000), Medawar sets this story on her home turf, Wisconsin’s Red Cliff reservation, where secretary Thelma Frenchette finds tribal attorney Judah Boiseneau shot to death in his office at the Tribal Courthouse. David Lamaraux, Chief of the reservation police force, joins with Bayfield County Sheriff Ralph Bothwell to try to find the killer. Suspicion falls heavily on Benny Pelequin, who was heard arguing with Boiseneau the night before and who’s rumored to be having an affair with the abusive Boiseneau’s wife Imogen. When word comes that Benny’s disappeared deep into the swampy woods of the reservation, David enlists his former girlfriend Karen Charboneau, a potter known as Tracker, to use her considerable skills to help find him. In the process, Tracker finds something else: a logging barge removing ancient pines—a highly profitable business forbidden by law. There’ll be more killings before the culprits behind the clandestine deforestation are unmasked and life can get back to what passes for normal in the deep North Woods.

Plotting almost as impenetrable as those woods, together with an overload of eccentric characters, makes for heavy going. But readers willing to bundle up may find the unusual background and Tracker, the story’s strongest asset, reason enough to warrant a return visit.