Merciless (Mercy Gunderson #3)

Merciless by Lori Armstrong is the third book in her Mercy Gunderson series - an ex-sniper who has moved back to South Dakota and is readjusting to civilian life while solving crimes in and around the local reservation.

Mercy is now FBI Special Agent Gunderson. She is newly minted and assigned to Rapid City. Her first case begins when a young woman is murdered on the Eagle River reservation and tribal police ask for FBI help. A clue leads Mercy to research previous cases and finds that there is a large number of unsolved cases involving murdered women, in sets of three, in the fall/winter for the last few years. Each case was written off as some other cause. But this years murder could be nothing else - the young woman was tied to the ground and staked with a wooden spike.

With three different police forces potentially working together, things will either run smoothly or protocols and rivalries will keep the case from being solved. Mercy works on the case while dealing with changes in her private life and life around the reservation.

Armstrong has created a great but flawed character who readers will follow for many more books. Mercy is strong but fragile at the beginning of the series, but her progression back into civilian and family life after twenty years in the military is as fascinating to watch as a train wreck. Great mystery series that will appeal to a wide swath of readers.

Armstrong, Lori. (2013). Merciless. New York: Touchstone.

The Trickster and the Troll

The Trickster and the Troll by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve is a folk tale from two cultures. Written to reflect the stories of her children's cultures - Lakota and Norwegian - it is the story of what happens to when people stop believing in the stories of their heritage.

Troll moved from Norway with his human family. He went because the mother asked him to watch her sons as they moved to a new land. Troll always do what mother ask of them.

But along the way Troll gets lost. When wondering on the plains looking for his family he stumbles across Iktomi - the Lakota Trickster. Where as Trolls may be mischievous or wicked and are usually gentle and helpful, Iktomi is truly a trickster. He lies and cheats to better lesser beings, including humans. He never does what he can make someone else do for him. And he never learns from his mistakes. Although his other side is Ksa, wisdom, in this story only Iktomi is present.

Iktomi agrees to help Troll find his humans. Once they are found, Iktomi goes to find the Lakota. But he cannot. They are no longer within the ancient grounds. They have been moved to a reservation.

Both Troll and Iktomi find that their people no longer believe in them. What will the tricksters do when they have no humans? How will they survive? And will they be around when later generations hear of their stories or will they be only a memory?

Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk. (1997). The Tirckster and the Troll. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

The Sons of the Wind

The Sons of the Wind: The Sacred Stories of the Lakota, edited by D.M. Dooling, is a beautiful look at the creation stories of the Sioux. Beginning from the time before there was anything and continuing to the creation of human, this story is a Genesis that can be seen in nature.

All of the gods can be seen in real life - the rock, the Earth, the sun and the sky are the 4 main Spirits. From there the story goes on to explain how other creatures developed, including the four winds, storms and the moon.

I read this book for the first time as an undergrad in a Native American Religions class. I then spent about 3 years trying to track down my own copy. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in world religions, creation myths, or American Indians of the plains.

Dooling, D.M. (Ed.) (1984). The sons of the wind: The sacred stories of the Lakota. New York: Parabola Books.