ARC BOOK REVIEW: Never Name The Dead by DM Rowell

Publication Date: November 8, 2022 Format: Kindle Genre:  Mystery

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books  Length: 336 pages Buy: Kindle | Audio

Synopsis

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 next plane to Oklahoma. She never expected to be plunged into a web of theft, betrayal, and murder. 
 
Mud discovers a tribe in disarray. Fracking is damaging their ancestral lands, Kiowa families are being forced to sell off their artifacts, and frackers have threatened to kill her grandfather over his water rights. When Mud and her cousin Denny discover her grandfather missing, accused of stealing the valuable Jefferson Peace medal from the tribe museum—and stumble across a body in his work room—Mud has no choice but to search for answers.
 
Mud sets out into the Wildlife Refuge, determined to clear her grandfather's name and identify the killer. But Mud has no idea that she's about to embark on a vision quest that will involve deceit, greed, and a charging buffalo—or that a murderer is on her trail.

Review: 

Thank you to netgalley.com and the publisher for sending me a free copy of this book.  I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I loved the Native history was intertwined within the mystery of this story.  However, the story itself was a bit disjointed.  I'm not sure if this was a supposed to be the first of a series or if it is a stand alone but there were two main stories and one went nowhere.  There was no resolution and you are just left hanging. 

I loved the characters and the twists and turns of the plot, I know some people complained about the way the Kiowa traditions etc were interspersed feeling like they were being lectured but I didn't feel that way at all. I was very excited that this was written by a Native person instead of someone of a different culture trying to write a story about Native Americans. 

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