A review by readingwithhippos
Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
5.0
I absolutely loved this book! I often crowd my reading list with mysteries and thrillers in the fall, and while they never fail to get me in the spirit of the season, they are rarely 5-star reads for me. I’m primarily a romance reader, and it’s hard to get the emotional payoff I crave from a genre that doesn’t promise a happy ending. However, Winter Counts is just so good, and I hope it’s the beginning of a long-running series because I would read many more books about Virgil Wounded Horse.
Virgil is the source of vigilante justice on his reservation, a role made necessary by the fact that tribal police have to hand felony cases off to the feds, and the feds decline to prosecute all but the highest-profile, most violent crimes. His latest job is to identify who’s bringing heroin onto the reservation and stop the trafficking, but the case becomes personal when he finds out his nephew is somehow involved.
Virgil is a great character, jaded and cranky but still good-hearted underneath. The tension as he follows one lead to the next is thick--I was so afraid for him, so sure he was being manipulated at every turn, I kept mentally screaming at him to get out, save himself. But Virgil’s not the kind of guy to flee in the face of danger, especially if there are vulnerable people who need protection.
Virgil is the source of vigilante justice on his reservation, a role made necessary by the fact that tribal police have to hand felony cases off to the feds, and the feds decline to prosecute all but the highest-profile, most violent crimes. His latest job is to identify who’s bringing heroin onto the reservation and stop the trafficking, but the case becomes personal when he finds out his nephew is somehow involved.
Virgil is a great character, jaded and cranky but still good-hearted underneath. The tension as he follows one lead to the next is thick--I was so afraid for him, so sure he was being manipulated at every turn, I kept mentally screaming at him to get out, save himself. But Virgil’s not the kind of guy to flee in the face of danger, especially if there are vulnerable people who need protection.