Margaret Coel

• Born: October 11, 1937
• Place of Birth: Denver, Colorado

TYPE OF PLOT: Amateur sleuth

PRINCIPAL SERIES: Vicky Holden and Father John O’Malley, 1995-

Contribution

Margaret Coel’s series about Vicky Holden and Father John O’Malley is among the most culturally rich of several detective series featuring Native American detectives. The series places a high premium on psychological realism, depicting in depth the main characters in their complex mixtures of desires, ambitions, fears, and anxieties. The author to whom Coel is most often compared is .

Coel has kept the Holden and O’Malley series flowing smoothly and steadily, producing about a novel per year since 1995 and short stories about the characters. The novels have usually been reviewed favorably, with positive comments focusing on Coel’s realistic character development and her accurate depictions of Arapaho history and culture. Although not Native American, Coel has engaged in extensive research on Arapaho culture and history for years. She regularly visits the Wind River Reservation and St. Stephen’s Mission (the model for the fictional St. Francis Mission).

Coel has made the best-seller lists of such newspapers as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Denver Post. Both The Spirit Woman (2000) and The Shadow Dancer (2002) won the Colorado Book Award, with the former also winning the Willa Cather Award for best novel of the West.

Biography

Margaret Coel was born Margaret Speas on October 11, 1937, in Denver, Colorado, to Samuel F. Speas and Margaret (McCloskey) Speas. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she met her future husband, George W. Coel. They married on July 22, 1962, and had three children, William, Kristin, and Lisa.

Coel began a career as a journalist in 1960, reporting for the Westminster Journal in Westminster, Colorado. She worked for the Boulder Daily Camera in Boulder as a feature writer from 1972 to 1975. She then continued writing as a freelancer and, over the years, occasionally served as a writing instructor and lecturer at the University of Colorado and other institutions.

Coel’s interest in Western history grew out of her family background. A fourth-generation member of a pioneer family, she has given credit to her father, who worked for a railroad, for her early interest in history and Native Americans. Her father’s stories about railroading in the West led to a collaborative effort between daughter and father, Goin’ Railroading: A Century on the Colorado High Iron (1986). Several years earlier, she had published her first book, Chief Left Hand: Southern Arapaho (1981), about a chief who was mortally wounded at the Sand Creek massacre in 1864 in Colorado.

Deeply interested in the history of the Native Americans of Colorado, Coel has explained that her special interest in Arapahos derives from her recognition of their history as traders and their profound spirituality. After attending a lecture by novelist Tony Hillerman, famous for his novels dealing with Navajo culture, Coel began considering writing fiction. She spent about four years working on her first novel, The Eagle Catcher (1995). Berkley Publishing decided to publish it, but only in paperback. When the book became one of the winners in a contest sponsored by the University Press of Colorado, the university press agreed to release it in hardback. The substantial sales led Berkley to publish each subsequent novel in the series, first in hardback and later in paperback.

In 1995, Coel began concentrating on fiction, publishing about a novel per year about Vicky Holden and Father John. She has also started writing a series of short stories about these characters, basing the plots of each story on one of the ten Arapaho commandments, which are similar to, but worded slightly differently from, the standard Judeo-Christian commandments.

The Holden and O’Malley series reflects several aspects of Coel’s life. One is Coel’s long-term study of Arapaho history and culture, consistently demonstrated in the many aspects of Arapaho culture present in and often at the heart of the narratives. Others include her Catholicism and Irish heritage. A lifelong Catholic, she grew up attending Catholic schools in Denver and joined an Irish-Catholic parish. She could not follow several relatives to the Jesuit-run Regis University in Denver (which then admitted only men), so she attended another Jesuit institution, Marquette. However, Regis is the site of an occasional visit from Father John, whose membership in the Jesuits reflects the author’s long-term respect for the religious order. Father John’s love for opera and his experience as a history teacher also reflect the author’s interests.

Analysis

Margaret Coel’s stories feature Vicky Holden and Father John O’Malley as amateur sleuths from widely different backgrounds: a divorced Arapaho female attorney and a Boston-Irish Jesuit priest. The pairing, which quickly assumes the level of close friendship and mutual respect and before long tempts both toward a romantic entanglement that they cannot honorably consummate, establishes dual cultural contexts for the stories. Between Vicky and Father John, though, there is no clash of cultures, as Father John, deeply interested in Arapaho history and profoundly respectful of the nation’s culture, quickly achieves status as the “Indian priest.”

Although Vicky and Father John do not experience a cultural divide, cultural clashes emerge in other areas of their lives. Vicky, having been immersed for years in a white culture during law school and then at a Denver law firm, and now known to her people as Hi sei ci nihi, or Woman Alone, because of her divorce, is treated as more of an outsider by the Arapahos than is the Boston Jesuit. Vicky’s last name, “Holden,” represents her attempts to hold on to her cultural heritage despite her lengthy stay outside it. Meanwhile, Father John feels largely separated from his Jesuit community because of his alcoholism and his feeling that his superiors have little confidence in him.

These intercultural and psychological dimensions reflect Coel’s belief that the success of a mystery story depends on characters who resonate with readers. Reading Coel’s stories is like following two close friends through the ups and downs of their lives and rooting for them to find happiness and triumph in their risky efforts to bring criminals to justice and exonerate the innocent.

Because neither Vicky nor Father John is a professional detective or private investigator, their forays into criminal investigation grow out of their broader desire to help others, Vicky by assisting her usually poverty-stricken clients and Father John by helping his parishioners. Father John consistently defines parishioners far more broadly than just those who attend Mass at St. Francis, a practice that helps lead to the great trust that the Arapaho community places in him. Similarly, Vicky regularly takes on clients no one else wants, much to the chagrin of her law partner, Adam Lone Eagle.

The popularity of the series also grows out of the extensive cultural and historical context provided within the stories. History is regularly surfacing in the present, and cultural attitudes ranging from a deep respect for older adults to a spiritual intermingling of traditional and Christian rituals permeate the novels and short stories. These elements are usually integrated effectively and accurately into the stories, resulting from Coel’s care in planning her stories and her wide-ranging and ongoing research. In addition to reading extensively about Arapaho history, Coel regularly visits the reservation and consults with both Arapahos and Jesuits to ensure that the stories are respectful of Arapaho ways and realistically depict what an Arapaho woman and a Jesuit priest might credibly do.

Additionally, many of the stories involve current issues affecting Native Americans and other segments of American society. Land and water rights, alcoholism, drug abuse, the building of casinos on reservation land, poverty, efforts to retain one’s cultural heritage, ownership of cultural artifacts, and sexual abuse of minors by priests, and many other contemporary issues appear within Coel’s stories, further wedding the past to the present.

The Story Teller

One of the most culturally rich novels in the series, The Story Teller (1998), finds Vicky and Father John trying to solve the murder of a graduate student, Todd Harris. Harris was planning to manage a new Arapaho museum on the grounds of St. Francis Mission after he completed his graduate work, but while doing research for his thesis, he discovered an extremely valuable ledger.

The novel draws heavily on Coel’s earlier research into the Sand Creek massacre for the book Chief Left Hand. It also reflects the growing interest in Native American cultural and funerary objects and the application of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The ledger, a book designed for recording expenditures and revenue and used to draw pictures depicting important events, is the catalyst for the mystery.

This ledger, which contains information about the Sand Creek massacre, would prove that Arapahos and Cheyennes died during the attack, a fact now widely accepted but earlier in dispute. The book is of enormous financial value, which provides the primary reason for the theft and murders that ensue.

Wife of Moon

Wife of Moon (2004) fuses past and present through a pair of crimes related to photographs. The museum at St. Francis Mission is displaying photographs by the famous photographer Edward S. Curtis. A descendant of the tribal chief in one of the photographs is murdered, and the library curator is missing.

The novel conveys the ongoing romantic tension between Father John and Vicky, who attempt to restrain their love for each other by remaining apart but are brought together by the murder and Vicky’s defense of a husband accused of murdering his wife. At the same time, Adam Lone Eagle expresses increased romantic interest in Vicky while pushing for them to become law partners. Again, Coel synthesizes the main characters’ interrelationships, mysteries that must be solved, and the merging of past and present.

The Drowning Man

The Drowning Man (2006) moves Vicky and Father John further along their life paths and seemingly farther apart. Vicky is established in both a romantic relationship and a professional partnership with Adam Lone Eagle. Neither arrangement, though, is going particularly well. Father John is worried that his years at St. Francis Mission may be coming to an end, as he finally has an assistant, Father Ian McCauley, who is both competent and seemingly content to be at the mission, making him a viable possibility as a replacement.

The mystery turns on a large petroglyph called the Drowning Man that is cut out of a cliff and stolen. At the same time, Vicky is called on to reopen the case of Travis Birdsong, who is serving time for manslaughter. He is believed to have killed his partner after they stole a similar petroglyph seven years earlier. Vicky believes that Travis is innocent of manslaughter, even if he was involved in the theft, and, much against the wishes of both her partner and the Arapaho elders, agrees to help him. The two petroglyph thefts turn out to be related, and Vicky’s actions put her life in serious jeopardy, which means that Father John also faces great danger in coming to her aid.

The stealing of the petroglyph in Coel’s novel reflects the real-life need to protect Native American artifacts from theft by unscrupulous collectors. The novel also touches on the issue of Native American land rights and the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church. Complicating Father John’s attempts to reach out to Arapaho youth on the reservation is his discovery that the older priest who has come to the reservation, supposedly to live out his final days, is guilty of having molested juveniles. As in the previous novels, Coel manages to bring the past vividly into the present and confront the challenge of maintaining past traditions while addressing current problems.

Coel's Wind River Mystery series ended in 2016 with Winter's Child. The twenty-book series was published from 1995 to 2016, winning six Colorado book awards. Coel's other titles include Buffalo Bill's Dead Now (2012), Night of the White Buffalo (2014), and The Man Who Fell from the Sky (2015).

Principal Series Characters:

• Vicky Holden is an Arapaho attorney who has returned to the Wind River Reservation area in Wyoming to practice law. She hopes to help her people but faces traditional cultural views that now see her as an outsider because she divorced her husband and studied and lived within the white culture. With her two children, Lucas and Susan, now grown, she tries to make her own way personally and professionally. Her efforts to aid her Arapaho clients, usually individuals with little money or social standing, lead to professional interactions with Father John O’Malley and to a strong romantic interest in him.
• Father John O’Malley, a Jesuit priest and recovering alcoholic, arrives at St. Francis Mission on the Wind River Reservation seeking a refuge where he can carry out his efforts at recovery. Before long, he develops great respect and fondness for the Arapahos, and they, in turn, come to trust him. He reciprocates Vicky’s romantic feelings for him, but they both know that his vow of celibacy and his dedication to his priestly vocation preclude any sort of sexual relationship.
• Ted Gianelli is the local Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. A friend of Father John, he shares the priest’s love of Italian opera. Much of his time is spent trying to persuade Father John to stay out of harm’s way as the priest becomes involved in criminal cases that threaten his and Vicky’s lives.
• Ben Holden is Vicky’s former husband and the father of her children. Although Ben is well respected by most people who know him, his heavy drinking and physical abuse of Vicky destroyed their marriage. Ben occasionally appears in the novels until he is murdered in The Shadow Dancer (2002).
• Adam Lone Eagle is an attorney whose personal and professional relationship with Vicky fluctuates greatly. In Killing Raven (2003), he persuades Vicky to take a position at a new casino, inadvertently putting her in a position that could lead to her death. In later novels, he becomes Vicky’s lover and law partner, although the relationship seems like a consolation prize for Vicky, who cannot have the man she most wants.

Bibliography

Browne, Ray B. Murder on the Reservation: American Indian Crime Fiction. University of Wisconsin Press/Popular Press, 2004.

Coel, Margaret. "Winter's Child Q & A." Margaret Coel, margaretcoel.com/novels-winters-child-qa.php. Accessed 20 July 2024.

Donaldson, John K. “Native American Sleuths: Following in the Footsteps of the Indian Guides.” In Telling the Stories: Essays on American Indian Literatures and Cultures, edited by Elizabeth Hoffman Nelson and Malcolm A. Nelson. Peter Lang, 2001.

“Margaret Coel: Love of History Leads to Mysteries.” Wyoming Library Roundup 48, no. 4 (Fall, 2006): 5-7.

Trenholm, Virginia Cole. The Arapahoes, Our People. 1970. Reprint. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.