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Death Where The Bad Rocks Live (2012)

by C.M. Wendelboe(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0425256111 (ISBN13: 9780425256114)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Berkley Trade

series

Spirit Road Mystery

review 1: Author C.M. Wendelboe tells his story with two different timelines: one present-day timeline with Manny trying to find out what happened so many years ago, and the second that follows Moses Ten Bears from the 1920s through to the 1940s. In many ways I found Moses's timeline to be the more interesting as it shows how life was on the reservation during that twenty year period, and how two families became entangled in lies, secrets, and the prejudices of the day.Manny Tanno is a dogged investigator who has flashes of intuition-- but hopefully not when he's behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. (His lack of driving skills is legendary.) Raised by his uncle, he's only now forming a relationship with his older brother, who as an AIM (American Indian Movement) enforcer served tim... moree in prison for murder. Manny went to school and left the reservation to become the first Lakota FBI agent. He had no intentions of ever returning until he was sent back by his superiors in Washington, DC. There is a sharp division between his youth and his adulthood, and Manny suffers a bit of an identity crisis that can even be seen in his choice of music: "...polka, with its heavy beat so much like traditional powwow music, without causing Manny to commit to being a Lakota through and through."Wendelboe's main character is backed by a strong supporting cast. Willie, the young man Manny is trying to train as the tribal investigator is having emotional problems as a result of events that took place in the first book in the series. (No, you don't have to read it to understand what's going on.) Then there's the running eBay fight for Elvis memorabilia between the reservation's CSI guy, Pee Pee, and the acting tribal chief of police, Lumpy Looks Twice. This brings much needed levity to the book. Memorable characters appear throughout the book, including Alexander Hamilton High Elk, who's been nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court, Manny's brother Reuben, and a little girl named Morissa Friend of All. My least favorite was Lumpy's niece Janet, a stereotypical makeup laden shopaholic that Lumpy put on the force in an attempt to straighten out Willie. All Janet seems to do is scream, throw up, shop, put on makeup, pout, rub against Willie, and find inventive new ways for the buttons to come undone on her shirt. Extremely tiresome!Despite Janet, this is a strong book filled with people who are fighting for some kind of future while being grounded by their past. What they decide to do with those bad rocks of the title will have an impact on their future. Although there is a much stronger Native American element to Wendelboe's books-- obviously because most of the characters are Native American-- I find them enjoyable reading and complimentary to Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire novels.
review 2: Publishers Synopsos: FBI agent MAnny Tanno thought he had left his tribe and the Pine Ridge Reservation behind him 10 years ago. But now, with a cold case unearthed in the hot desert sun, he knows that the past never really goes away. This story held my interest through the entire book. I kept thinking I had maybe figured it out, bu I am not as good an observer as Lakota Manny Tanno. The language and the tenor of this story is so familiar to me. Many of the phrases that the characters used are ones I heard my Dad use. Not that he was Lakota, but he was of the era. We moved to Rapid City when I was a baby in 1946. So much of the time of this story was the time I spent in Rapid City. My father employed Lakota in his construction business, and we spend summers in the Badlands and the Black Hills when relatives would come to visit. I had a tiny problem with some of the editing of this story. I am no English major but I did find several grammatical errors. It did not take away from the story or the mystery, just irritated me. less

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