Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

An addictive and groundbreaking debut thriller set on a Native American reservation Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that's hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil's own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop. They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost. Winter Counts is a tour-de-force of crime fiction, a bracingly honest look at a long-ignored part of American life, and a twisting, turning story that's as deeply rendered as it is thrilling.

3.5, rounding up. Longer review to follow, but fascinating and very enjoyable, even though this isn't my usual type of book.

Overall the book was enjoyable, but I could also so easily start nitpicking on it, which is not great. It's really a 50-50 book in terms of what I liked and what I didn't like.

I'll start by saying that I quite liked the plot in big lines, I liked the way it started and where it went. I think it was pretty well thought and planned out. I actually had a moment of gasping somewhere in there when some things were revealed and that alone is a golden star from me.

And I said I liked the plot in big lines. If I look at it closer, I didn't enjoy the execution as much. At times the action was too over the top, too mainstream, and the outcome didn't quite satisfy me. Actually, not at all. Yeah, there was justice served, but it could have been so much better.

The setting of the book was great and I enjoyed reading a book centred around Native Americans, I liked the use of native words, but at the same time there are a few things that I didn't understand because of it. Virgil did explain some of the words, but others were a mystery. There are some words that were used quite often and I have no idea what they mean. Granted, I get that Virgil explaining each and every one of them would have felt unnatural and forced, and I could have just looked them up, but I still would have liked the book doing a better job at explaining some words, it did great on some of them.

About the characters, and here I mean Virgil since he's the main character and we basically see everything from his perspective, I didn't feel like Virgil was constant in his feelings, he was all over the place. There was a random bout of jealousy at some point that came out of nowhere and had no resolve. There was a random wondering of heartbroken cures in the middle of the book that also came out of nowhere and had no resolve. I couldn't tell you what happened there.

Like I said, the book is overall enjoyable, but it really doesn't stand out. The description is fine, the plot is fine, the characters are fine. Definitely not outstanding in any way.

I had really high expectations going into this after seeing so. much. hype, but I found the writing to be incredibly simplistic and flat. Heavy on the telling, minimal showing. By all rights I should have loved this book but it was an absolute slog.

Virgil Wounded Horse is the man people turn to on the Rosebud Reservation when they can't get justice through federal law enforcement, which ignores nearly all crimes short of murder. For a price, he'll provide the punishment the courts won't. When his teenage nephew becomes embroiled in a drug scandal, Virgil makes it his mission to find out where the drugs are coming from and stop them from getting onto the reservation. Along the way he has to confront and come to terms with his Native identity.

Though a work of fiction, Winter Counts is an eye-opening glimpse into life on a Native American reservation in the 21st century. The book is well-plotted with a great cast of characters. The mystery and action pull the reader through the story. A great read for any thriller fans or fans of the movie Wind River.