“Where there’s pain, there’s blame,” which is why Syd Walker lives far from her Oklahoma roots and hasn’t seen her family in years. As a teen, Syd; her sister, Emma Lou; and her best friend, Luna, were attacked by a pair of masked Tsigilis, the Cherokee word for devils. Syd, who is Cherokee, shot one of them dead, but his gang killed Luna and her parents. She can’t forgive herself for not saving Luna, and the small town of Picher can’t decide, even all these years later, what she should have done that night. That past is now coming back with a vengeance as the epidemic of missing young Native women now seems to have swallowed Emma Lou, and the body of another young woman has been found, with Syd’s old work ID card in her mouth. Syd’s return home immerses the reader in the difficulty of returning to a place and people you’ve outgrown, the bitter choices we must sometimes make—Syd is now an archaeologist for the same Bureau of Indian Affairs that has cost her people so much—and the strength that love and loyalty bring. Lillie (an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) adds to the story details of Native history and current day life, with sardonic wit both tempering and highlighting the pain that pierces both times. A dark and propulsive thriller for fans of Kelly J. Ford.
