The Killing of Monday Brown: A Phoebe Siegel Mystery - Hardcover

Prowell, Sandra West

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802731848 ISBN 13: 9780802731845

Publisher: Walker & Co, 1994

Synopsis

The sequel to By Evil Means finds Private Investigator Phoebe Siegel drawn into a native American community near her hometown of Billings, Montana, when a young Crow is accused of murdering a thieving dealer in Indian artifacts.

About this title

Reviews

In her latest job, Montana PI Phoebe Siegel, introduced in By Evil Means , hopes to clear a Crow Indian suspected of murdering a grave robber. The brisk narrative begins when a vanload of people spills into the PI's yard. Sent by Kyle Old Wolf, Phoebe's friend and a member of the local police, they're all related to the murder suspect, Matthew Wolf. He is accused of killing Monday Brown, whose body is missing, as is most of the latest batch of artifacts that he had sold to Jurgen Muller, a hulking German who is haunting Billings and snarling at the locals. The Wolfs are staying quiet about the two artifacts they found in Matthew's car. Phoebe is barely on the case when James Eagle, a friend of Matthew and his brother Steven, is murdered. Kyle says the answers Phoebe wants are on the nearby reservation, but even with the help of a psychologist familiar with the Indians, the investigation grows stranger and more dangerous. Prowell adds dimension to her twisting plot and varied cast with Phoebe's unsentimental interest in a culture she finds baffling in both its traditional and modern aspects.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Yellowstone County deputy Kyle Old Wolf's relatives descend on Billings, Mont., shamus Phoebe Siegel with the plea that she go to bat for Kyle's cousin Matthew, accused of killing suspect Crow antiquities trader Monday Brown. It's a good choice, because family's important to Phoebe, as she showed in By Evil Means (1993)--there'll be more domestic drama with her brother Father Michael here--and because Phoebe turns out to be more sensitive than she knew, or wanted to be, to the spiritual values of the female Wolfs, who've formed a sweat lodge with Monday's wife, Ardena. Phoebe will need all the help and guidance she can get- -whether it's from Matthew's great-grandmother Anna, who appears to her in an uncanny posthumous vision, or from psychologist Jenni Cramer's white-folks' medicine--because menacing Jurgen Mueller, the front man for a European antiquities purchasing group, takes time out from beating up hookers and terrorizing Matthew (who's been freed on bail only to go into hiding) to inform Phoebe that he's got her number too. Prowell's bid for the Tony Hillerman audience has a colorful (and politically correct) background, a plot that doesn't skimp on complications, and an irresistible heroine with endless family problems--just about everything but the dramatic clarity that keeps the resonance of Hillerman's tales under control. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Monday Brown, who trades in Native American artifacts, is missing and presumed dead after bragging that he had discovered a motherlode of antiquities. Matthew Wolf is under arrest on suspicion of murder, even though the body hasn't turned up yet. The Wolf family hires Billings, Montana, private eye Phoebe Siegel to investigate. This second Phoebe Siegel mystery more than fulfills the promise of By Evil Means ; the half-Jewish, half-Catholic Siegel is a believable mix of confidence, self-doubt, determination, angst, and humor. Following Monday Brown's trail leads Siegel on a classic Native American vision quest in which the dimensions of reality can be altered and the border between life and death seems easily breached. As Phoebe's mind-expanding mystical adventure shatters her narrow worldview, the reader realizes that author Prowell intends to challenge her audience with something more than the case at hand. Muller, Grafton, and Paretsky may have set the table by introducing female sleuths to the hard-boiled genre, but it's Prowell who shows every indication of taking the female private eye to the next level, beyond formula. This ambitious, multifaceted novel announces the maturation of a major mystery series. Wes Lukowsky

Headstrong private detective Phoebe Siegel ( By Evil Means, LJ 1/93) remains ignorant of Native American religious beliefs even though she lives near Billings, Montana, and has several Indian friends. Despite this deficiency, the family of an Indian youth accused of possible murder and graverobbing enlists her help in clearing him. Controversy over lost Indian heritage, smuggling of valuable artifacts, and murder in Phoebe's own backyard add interesting--if somewhat routine--elements to this series title. For larger collections.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Walker & Co
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802731848
• ISBN 13: 9780802731845
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 255