Reviews for Mask of the deer woman : a novel
Library Journal
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Grieving the death of her 17-year-old daughter, former Chicago detective Carrie Starr arrives at Oklahoma's Saliquaw reservation, ready to begin her position as the new tribal marshal for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. With limited resources, Starr investigates the many unsolved disappearances of young women from the reservation—the most recent being university student Chenoa Cloud. Even though her family has roots in the reservation, Starr remains an outsider and is met with opposition and even hostility as she tries to investigate Cloud's disappearance. More troubling, she has inexplicably started to catch glimpses of a woman from her father's stories—Deer Woman, a figure with a woman's body and the antlers of a deer. Indigenous narrator Isabella Star Lablanc lyrically taps into the immense sadness and complex emotional history of this Indigenous community even as she communicates the tension of this unsettling story. Dove's novel shines a light on the many missing and murdered Indigenous women who disappear each year from reservations and the deep grief that resides in the community because of their absence. VERDICT Suspenseful, timely, and heartbreaking. Share with readers of Marcie R. Rendon's Cash Blackbear mysteries or Vanessa Lillie's Blood Sisters.—Kaitlyn Tanis
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
DEBUT Dove's first novel tackles the epidemic of missing Indigenous women with a contemporary tale set on a fictional Kansas reservation. Newly appointed tribal marshal Carrie Starr has just arrived at the Saliquaw reservation dragging the remains of her career and personal life behind her. Her first case is a young woman who has gone missing, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Starr knows that Indigenous women have been going missing for decades, but discovering proof that the crimes were mismanaged and ignored, even by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, seems impossible. Uncertain if she can locate the young woman in time, Starr juggles many influences on the investigation, including politics, oil development, and a distrust of outsiders. Occasionally the narrative becomes bogged down in Starr's difficult past and alcohol addiction, with sections unclear or jumbled. For instance, Starr's addiction may contribute to her visions of a spirit avenging women. This novel shines with Starr's outsider analysis of the reservation where her father grew up but doesn't consider her one of its own. Some secondary characters remain undeveloped, possibly for a sequel to explore. VERDICT Strongly consider this for public libraries, particularly those serving tribal land.—Catherine Field
Publishers Weekly
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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.)
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
In this riveting police procedural, journalist Laurie L. Dove dramatizes real-life horror: that the disappearances of Indigenous women from the nation’s 326 reservations are much less likely to be investigated than the disappearances of non-Indigenous women. Indigenous missing women are often dismissed as runaways, addicts, or sex workers. This account zooms in on a reservation in Oklahoma, where heroine Carrie Starr —a former detective with the Chicago Police Department, whose father lived on the rez—has been sent as a punishment to clear cold-case files on the reservation’s missing women. Starr, devastated by the death of her daughter, hates her new assignment. Within four days of her arrival, another young woman, a graduate student working on a conservation grant, goes missing. Then the body of yet another missing woman is found. The characterization of Starr is multi-layered and believable. The suspense builds steadily into a stunning ending. Dove has written a procedural that produces both stomach-clutching suspense and outrage at the dangers and indifference Indigenous women face.
