The second day in Mud Sawpole’s unexpected quest starts with a missing body that leads to confrontations with deadly snakes—some with rattlers and others on two legs. Both want her dead.
More praise for Silent Are The Dead.
While back on tribal land, Mud Sawpole uncovers an illegal fracking operation underway that threatens the Kiowas’ ancestral homeland. But there’s an even greater threat: a local businessman involved in artifact thefts is murdered, and a respected tribe elder faces accusation of the crime. After being roped in by her cousin, Denny, they begin to investigate the death while also pursuing evidence to permanently stop frackers from destroying Kiowa land, water, and livelihoods.
When answers evade her, Mud heeds her grandfather’s and great-aunt’s words of wisdom and embraces Kiowa tribal customs to find the answers that she seeks. But her ceremonial sweat leads to a vision with answers wrapped in more questions.
Mud and Denny race against the clock to uncover the real killer and must face the knowledge that there may be a traitor—and a murderer—in their midst. It’s too late for one victim—and Mud may be next.
Don’t miss the second day of Mud Sawpole’s four-day spiritual quest!
Click here to see the painting by C. E. Rowell mentioned in Never Name the Dead and Silent Are the Dead
Download a Bookclub packet for Silent Are the Dead (PDF)
Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Mae starts an unexpected spiritual quest when summoned back to the former Kiowa, Comanche, Apache Reservation of her childhood by her Kiowa grandfather. Upon arrival, she is thrown into a whirlwind of deceit, theft and murder. It takes a blend of Silicon Valley ingenuity and Native American spirituality to solve a murder—before time runs out.
“Rowell’s Never Name the Dead is an impressive debut, … Rowell brings notes of poetry to the dark tale of corruption.”
—CrimeReads
“Never Name the Dead may join the ranks of Native American books along the veins of Tony Hillerman and Anne Hillerman's Leaphorn/Chee mysteries.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Never Name the Dead weaves a tale of timely Native issues like fracking and poverty with a breathless mystery.”
—Buzzfeed
“[A] debut wrapped in Kiowa history, stories, and culture . . . Recommended for readers of David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s Winter Counts.”
—Library Journal
© 2024 D.M. Rowell