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Wind River Mysteries
The Wind River Mysteries series by Margaret Coel has 20 known books (20 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with The Eagle Catcher (1995).
- Books
- 20 known books (20 novels)
- Published
- 20
- First published
- 1995
- Status
- completed
- Shelved under
- Mystery & Crime
- Last checked
Start here: The Eagle Catcher (1995) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
The Eagle Catcher
The Eagle Catcher (1995) opens the Wind River Mysteries on the reservation itself, introducing Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley, the Jesuit priest at St. Francis Mission, whose investigative partnership -- shadowed by his vows and her own past -- would run through nineteen more books. Margaret Coel, a historian of the American West, grounds the case in the reservation's land and political life rather than a generic whodunit setup. It runs 186 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Eagle Catcher - Book 2:
The Ghost Walker
The Ghost Walker followed in 1996 as the second Wind River novel, continuing Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley's still-forming partnership as they investigate a crime rooted in the kind of buried family history Margaret Coel returns to throughout the series. It runs 243 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Ghost Walker - Book 3:
The Dream Stalker
By 1997's The Dream Stalker, the third entry, Coel had settled into the series' pattern of pairing contemporary crime -- here bound up with reservation land and oil politics -- with closely observed Arapaho cultural detail. It runs 260 pages, with Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley's own unresolved relationship continuing quietly in the background.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Dream Stalker - Book 4:
The Lost Bird
The Lost Bird (1999) is the fourth Wind River novel, published the same year as its successor The Story Teller, and keeps to the series' method of layering a present-day mystery over Wind River Reservation history and Arapaho tradition. It runs 294 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Lost Bird - Book 5:
The Story Teller
The Story Teller, also released in 1999, was the second of two Wind River books Coel published that year -- the fifth entry, with Vicky Holden's legal expertise and Father John O'Malley's standing at St. Francis Mission once again pulled into a case rooted in reservation history. It runs 256 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Story Teller - Book 6:
The Spirit Woman
The Spirit Woman arrived in 2000 as the sixth Wind River novel, continuing Margaret Coel's research-grounded portrait of the Arapaho community alongside Vicky and John's slow-building, still-unresolved partnership. It runs 294 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Spirit Woman - Book 7:
The Thunder Keeper
The Thunder Keeper (2001), the seventh entry, is among the shorter Wind River novels at 245 pages, with Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley's investigation once again threading contemporary crime through the reservation land and oil rights politics that recur across the series.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Thunder Keeper - Book 8:
The Shadow Dancer
The Shadow Dancer followed in 2002 as the eighth Wind River novel, running 291 pages, with the Arapaho lawyer and the St. Francis Mission priest's now well-established partnership carrying the case forward much as it had since The Eagle Catcher seven books earlier.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Shadow Dancer - Book 9:
Killing Raven
Killing Raven (2003) is markedly longer than its predecessors at 423 pages -- the ninth Wind River novel, and one of the more expansive entries in Coel's mix of contemporary reservation crime and closely researched Arapaho history.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Killing Raven - Book 10:
Wife of Moon
Wife of Moon marks the series' halfway point -- book ten of twenty -- published in 2004 at 304 pages, with Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley's investigation once again drawing on Margaret Coel's own historical research into the Wind River Reservation and its Arapaho community.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Wife of Moon - Book 11:
Eye of the Wolf
Eye of the Wolf (2005), the eleventh entry at 319 pages, continues the series' throughline of a case rooted in reservation land or family history, with Vicky and John's own relationship -- complicated by his vows and never resolved into romance -- developing further in the background.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Eye of the Wolf - Book 12:
The Drowning Man
The Drowning Man followed in 2006 as the twelfth Wind River novel, running 336 pages, with the investigation once again pairing a contemporary crime against the real cultural and historical texture of the reservation that Margaret Coel researched firsthand over the years she wrote the series.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Drowning Man - Book 13:
The Girl with Braided Hair
The Girl with Braided Hair (2007) is the thirteenth Wind River novel at 304 pages, keeping Vicky Holden's legal work and Father John O'Malley's role at St. Francis Mission tied together in a case shaped by the buried family histories that recur as an engine for the series' plots.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Girl with Braided Hair - Book 14:
The Silent Spirit
The Silent Spirit didn't appear until 2009, two years after The Girl with Braided Hair -- the fourteenth book in the series, continuing Vicky and John's long, gradually developing partnership as Margaret Coel's Arapaho-set mysteries moved into their final stretch.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Silent Spirit - Book 15:
The Spider's Web
The Spider's Web (2010), the fifteenth Wind River novel at 304 pages, keeps to Coel's established formula: a present-day crime on the Wind River Reservation investigated by Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley, set against the real history and politics of the Arapaho community.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Spider's Web - Book 16:
Buffalo Bill's Dead Now
Buffalo Bill's Dead Now arrived in 2012 after a two-year gap -- the sixteenth entry at 291 pages -- with Vicky and John's cases by this point built on nearly two decades of shared history, and a relationship that, true to the series, still hadn't resolved into anything conventional.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Buffalo Bill's Dead Now - Book 17:
Killing Custer
Killing Custer (2013), the seventeenth Wind River novel at 309 pages, continues Margaret Coel's practice of grounding each mystery in real Arapaho history and reservation politics, with Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley's partnership carrying nearly two decades of accumulated history into the case.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Killing Custer - Book 18:
Night of the White Buffalo
Night of the White Buffalo followed in 2014 as the eighteenth Wind River novel, running 290 pages, with reservation land and oil rights politics again supplying the contemporary crime at the center of Vicky and John's investigation.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Night of the White Buffalo - Book 19:
The Man Who Fell from the Sky
The Man Who Fell from the Sky (2015) is the longest Wind River novel at 425 pages, the nineteenth entry, arriving the year before the series' close with Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley's long-running, never-quite-resolved partnership still at the emotional center of the case.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Man Who Fell from the Sky - Book 20:
Winter's Child
Winter's Child (2016) closes the Wind River Mysteries at book twenty and 304 pages, the last case Margaret Coel gave Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley after two decades of investigations that paired contemporary reservation crime with real Arapaho history -- and a relationship the series never resolved into conventional romance.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Winter's Child
About the Wind River Mysteries series
The Wind River mysteries follow Vicky Holden, an Arapaho lawyer who returned to Wyoming's Wind River Reservation after a career in Denver, and Father John O'Malley, the Jesuit priest at the reservation's St. Francis Mission, as an investigative partnership that spans twenty novels. Each book pairs a contemporary crime -- often rooted in reservation politics, land and oil rights, or buried family history -- with the real cultural and historical texture of the Arapaho community and the Wind River Reservation itself, drawing on Margaret Coel's own background as a historian of the American West.
Vicky and John's relationship is the series' emotional throughline: a deep partnership complicated by his vows and her own past, that develops gradually and unevenly across two decades of books without ever resolving into a conventional romance. Coel researched the reservation directly over the years she wrote the series, and the books are frequently cited for their respectful, closely observed depiction of Arapaho life alongside their traditional mystery plotting.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the main characters in the Wind River mysteries?
Vicky Holden, an Arapaho lawyer, and Father John O'Malley, a Jesuit priest at the Wind River Reservation's St. Francis Mission, investigating crimes together across the series.
How many books are in the Wind River series?
Twenty, published from 1995 to 2016.
Do I need to read the Wind River books in order?
Each mystery is largely self-contained, but Vicky and John's relationship and personal histories build across the series, so reading in publication order gives the fullest picture.
If you like the Wind River Mysteries series
Reading order last verified .