Death along the Spirit Road

By C.M. Wendleboe

FBI agent Manny Tanno goes back to the area where he grew up, back to very poor Pine Ridge Reservation reservation which is a fraction of the area where the Sioux and Lakota  once roamed free.

When Manny  was growing up in the seventies, Pine Ridge was the poorest county in the nation and the most violent. His uncle tried to shield him from these realities. But as he drives on Highway 41 toward Oglala he has frightening memories of bodies dead in the roadway and scattered in all corners of the reservation.  There were many militants in the AIM movement and in 1975 two FBI agents were gunned down on this highway.

Agent's Car

This ambush is still used to teach baby FBIs about traffic stops.  Manny now knows the two different versions of the event, both the one that went around the rez at the time and the version he learned about while in training. Both  have a different take on these violent deaths.

 Manny's eldest brother was a leader in the AIM movement, he was an enforcer who eventually went to jail. He now lives in the reservation apparently having found religion while in stir and now is studying to be a holy man. Aside from the modern memories Pine Ridge is close to the sacred Wounded Knee territory where so many helpless innocents were slaughtered.  The entire area is filled with history.

Tanno's present mission is to find the murderer of local land developer Jason Red Cloud. On the one hand Red Cloud is well thought of as a local boy who succeeded but he did develop enemies along the way as Red Cloud made himself a national success story. Manny has lost his country roots and longs for concrete sideways and the environment of DC but as he reacclimatizes to South Dakota he finds his way toward the resolution of the case.  On more than one occasion his life is threatened he gets attacked several times.

What I liked about this book was the character development, the history, the locality and the story.

What I didn't like, because it made no sense was the fact that although Manny had a reputation for solving cases his boss was harassing him and threatening him on a daily basis to get the job done or else. The 'or else' involves getting fired from his teaching position at the FBI Academy and possibly stationed at some forlorn location. In addition to this after several attempts on Manny's life no backup was provided by the FBI, just further harangues. This detracted from my from my enjoyment of the book.

Pine Ridge