Winter Counts

WINTER COUNTS is set on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, a couple of hundred miles from Mount Rushmore - a place that is world-renowned for its giant sculptures of American Presidents, but of which you may have far more mixed feelings after reading more about its history.The setting is one of many very strong elements in WINTER COUNTS, both place and the people who inhabit it. Weiden puts readers right there, giving us a clear view of life on the rez in all its complexities. This is rich, layered storytelling that hums along with plenty of action and thrills while never skimping on depth. On the Rosebud Indian Reservation those who can't find justice from the legal system or tribal council (questions of justice are a strong theme throughout) call on Virgil Wounded Horse, the local enforcer. But when heroin threatens the reservation, and more particularly Virgil's nephew, he undertakes a dangerous investigation into those who profit from others' pain.WINTER COUNTS is a superb example of what some have said about 'crime fiction being the modern social novel'. It's an absorbing, rich novel that moves with pace and power, while giving us plenty of insights into a variety of issues, from injustices historic and ongoing to questions of indigenous identity. Weiden, a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, writes beautifully - there are some astonishingly good passages and descriptions. So it's the kind of book that will have you tearing through the pages while also wanting to pause now and then to just savour the quality of what you're reading, or ponder the questions that may be raised in your mind about events and the realities faced by indigenous peoples.Overall, WINTER COUNTS is a thriller with heart and soul. The kind of book that sticks with you beyond the events that have you turning the page. Character-centric crime fiction that packs a punch in a setting that pulses through its lyrical prose. It marks the arrival of a strong new voice in crime fiction - a very welcome one that hopefully will have much more to say. David Heska Wanbli Weiden hasn't just been added to my 'must-read' list of authors, his next novel will jump to the top of the TBR pile.

As a reader from Switzerland, I got interesting insights into the situation in the reservations. Things I really was not aware of. For such the book is very interesting. Apart from that the books nowhere near to the terms crime or thriller. I had to stop in the middle. Also because the plot is not really plausible.

Loved the setting, the detail of life on the reservation. But the arc of the story was pretty predictable. Overall it was ok but not special.

WINTER COUNTS would be merely an above-average suspense-thriller, well-written and well-told, if not for two things, one good and one bad.The bad thing is its slavish adherence to crime-fiction tropes, including one of the hackiest of hack moves in the genre — the convenient sympathy-inducing but somehow super-empowering gunshot wound to the shoulder. There’s no surer sign that an author has written themselves into a corner and can’t find a non-clichéd, non-contrived way out.The good thing is its rare and authoritative window into the world of American tribal reservation culture and politics. If I'm going to sit through a familiar story, all I ask that it be about an unfamiliar culture and and an unfamiliar setting, and teaches me something new and worth knowing as a result. WINTER COUNTS did that and then some.Among the takeaways that will stick with me:— A lot of major crimes go unprosecuted and unpunished on reservations because the white-led federal government has jurisdiction over all felonies there, but often declines prosecution because of a murky combination of institution complacency and complacent racism. As a result, anything bigger than a minor theft or smaller than murder or drug dealing is almost guaranteed to go nowhere in the legal system.— The above scenario gave rise on the reservations to the use of professional vigilantes, hired by fellow tribe members to exact one form of justice where formal justice has been denied. Virgil Wounded Bear, the hero of WINTER COUNTS, is one such animal, engaged to administer beatings to men who committed crimes like sexual assault or bullying. And learning to live with the fact that despite his necessity, he will be necessarily looked down upon in nominally polite society as a result:“'Virgil, what do you do?'"I hated that question. It was such a white way of looking at the world, that a person is judged by their job, not their character."— While it's well-known that white men have been cheating and betraying Indians as long as the two skin colors have come into contact, it's not as well-known that Indians, even of the same tribe, will screw each other — just as any group of people will — if given enough power and enough lack of oversight. A lot of that is driven by the rampant prejudice within the tribe, between full-blooded Indians and Indians with white or other ethnic blood. A lot of the cruelty is driven by an incestuous sense of overfamiliarity with a tribal individual's abilities, deestinies and familial origins carried along what author David Heska Wanbli Weiden calls "the moccasin internet."Of particular interest was the subplot about a few members of the tribe in this story trying to wean the others off what the author calls "frybread culture" — basically a complacent fast-food diet that has become so ingrained in tribal society that it's all but impossible to get them to embrace a healthier and more indigenous diet — say, of bison meat and locally grown crops — even when it tastes better.I enjoyed WINTER COUNTS, at least until its cliché-addled action finale, which was a tad too dependent on suspiciously convenient timing and other tiresome genre contrivances. It deserves much of its flood of critical praise, though I can't help but think it's been overpraised as one of the year's best in a spasm of white guilt in literary circles. It's pretty good with that extra gear I mentioned, but "great"? That may be taking things too far. Great crime novels shoot shoulder wounds in the face.

The first crime novel I’ve read that is set on a reservation and with largely native characters. The Protagonist is Virgil Wounded Horse, a sober alcoholic and free lance enforcer who becomes embroiled in events relating to drugs, intra tribal corruptionand a search for his native heritage. A well written, paced and plotted story with intriguing characters and some solid current and historical information on the conditions that native peoples live with in the USA. No surprise, as with most marginalized groups, they are without the political, financial and educationalresources to improve their lives. And so it goes...