Mask of the Deer Woman

Dove’s haunting first novel centers on former Chicago detective Carrie Starr, who arrives for her new post as a Bureau of Indian Affairs tribal marshal on Oklahoma’s Saliquaw reservation with few belongings but plenty of baggage. Still reeling from the death of her 17-year-old daughter and the subsequent shooting that got her booted from the force, Carrie hopes to lay low while she figures out her next move. But days before her arrival, graduate student Chenoa Cloud disappeared from the reservation, and her frantic mother insists she would never run away. Then the body of a different young woman turns up. With negotiations over a fracking deal that could change the fortunes of the reservation approaching a critical point, there’s pressure on Carrie from all quarters. Dove expertly juggles several rich themes, including the national epidemic of missing Indigenous women, without sacrificing suspense. Of special note is her depiction of Carrie’s plight as a perennial racial outsider (she has an Irish American mother and an Indigenous father). Though the Saliquaw Nation is fictional, the novel’s vivid depiction of the reservation and its inhabitants rings true—by contrast, the villains are somewhat two-dimensional. Still, there’s enough here for readers to want to see Carrie back in action soon. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Jan.)