Margaret Coel Books in Order

Denver reporter Catherine McLeod investigates the shooting of a man in a Native neighborhood where no one trusts the police. Following reluctant witnesses into gang territory and north to Wind River, she joins forces with Vicky Holden to expose cartel violence reaching deep into reservation life.

Years after an Arapaho couple find an abandoned white infant on their doorstep, they are ready to adopt the girl they have raised as their own. When their lawyer is killed by a hit-and-run driver, Vicky Holden and Father John uncover a link between the child and one of Wind River's darkest secrets.

Robert Walking Bear dies in the Wind River mountains while hunting for Butch Cassidy's legendary cache with a family map. Rumors of greed and betrayal swirl, and when another relative dies, Vicky Holden and Father John pursue a killer willing to shed blood for outlaw treasure.

After a mysterious man confesses murder in Father John's confessional and vanishes, rancher Dennis Carey is found shot dead on Blue Sky Highway. As a rare white buffalo calf draws pilgrims to Carey's ranch, Vicky and Father John investigate linked killings and disappearances on a reservation already on edge.

During a parade reenacting the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a famous Custer impersonator is shot dead amid chaos between cavalry reenactors and Arapaho youth. Father John and Vicky must look past easy scapegoats to uncover a modern conspiracy rooted in clashing memories of the past.

Regalia once worn by Arapaho Chief Black Heart in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show is finally returning home, until the shipment arrives empty. When the collector who arranged the donation is murdered, Vicky Holden and Father John trace a blood feud and artifact thefts stretching back more than a century.

This collection gathers short mysteries featuring Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden, along with essays on writing the modern West. From stolen museum artifacts to a thirty-year-old murder and a deadly game with a killer called Bad Heart, the stories spotlight Wind River's hidden corners.

When a charismatic gubernatorial candidate is gunned down, his estranged wife is quickly arrested with damning evidence in hand. Covering the story for a Denver paper, Catherine McLeod receives an anonymous call naming another killer and must risk her career and life to prove the truth.

After Vicky Holden agrees to represent a white woman accused of murdering her Arapaho fiancé, she finds herself at odds with much of the tribe, and even Father John. As tensions rise, the pair must untangle a web of lies surrounding a televangelist family and a psychopathic killer.

Kiki Wallowingbull travels to Hollywood to learn what happened to his great-grandfather, an Arapaho extra who vanished while filming a silent western in 1923. When Kiki's body is found back on the reservation, Vicky Holden and Father John connect two deaths separated by nearly a century.

Denver investigative reporter Catherine McLeod survives an attempt on her life soon after she begins covering Arapaho and Cheyenne land claims linked to the Sand Creek Massacre. As she digs deeper, she uncovers a conspiracy that reaches from frontier atrocities to modern power brokers and her own hidden heritage.

Human remains unearthed on Wind River are identified as Liz Plenty Horses, killed in 1973 after being accused of betraying the American Indian Movement. Vicky Holden and Father John peel back decades of silence, exposing old politics and new threats tied to her death.

When thieves chisel a sacred petroglyph called the Drowning Man from Red Cliff Canyon, Father John receives a ransom demand. As Vicky reopens an old case involving a similar theft and a suspicious death, the pair uncover a network profiting from stolen Native artifacts.

Taking the eighth commandment, Thou shalt not steal, as its touchstone, this Arapaho Ten Commandments short mystery follows Father John and Vicky Holden as a theft on the reservation grows into a deeper test of trust, loyalty, and what real restitution requires.

After three Shoshone men are found executed on the old Bates Battle site, an anonymous message warns, This is for the Indian priest. Father John and Vicky Holden must stop whoever is trying to reignite a war between Arapaho and Shoshone by exploiting a nineteenth-century massacre.

In this mystery linking two tragedies a century apart, Vicky Holden and Father John investigate the murder of a modern Arapaho woman alongside the long-ago killing of her ancestor. Clues from both eras reveal how unfinished history can still claim lives.

Centered on the third commandment about taking the Lord's name in vain, this Arapaho Ten Commandments mystery brings back a chilling figure known as Bad Heart. Father John and Vicky Holden confront how vengeance and broken promises can twist faith into something dangerous.

The body of a white man is found on the Wind River Reservation just as a new tribal casino opens amid protests. Serving as the casino's counsel, Vicky uncovers evidence of fraud and danger, while Father John struggles to keep the peace as tensions escalate.

When Vicky Holden's ex-husband is shot soon after a bitter dinner, she becomes the prime suspect. At the same time, Father John probes a fringe religious group led by a man calling himself Orlando, and both trails converge in a deadly revival of the Shadow Dance.

This limited-edition Arapaho Ten Commandments story turns on the second commandment against graven images. A haunting farewell forces Father John and Vicky Holden to ask what happens when symbols of devotion become excuses for obsession, control, and danger.

Built around the ninth commandment about coveting a neighbor's spouse, this Arapaho Ten Commandments tale finds Father John and Vicky Holden untangling desire, resentment, and old promises, as a seemingly private obsession threatens to tear a community apart.

A young Arapaho man apparently takes his own life at a sacred site high in the Wind River Mountains. When strange events follow, Vicky Holden and Father John suspect murder and dig into motives that reach from reservation politics to Denver's financial world.

Drawn by the legend that Sacajawea is buried on Wind River, a historian friend of Vicky Holden vanishes while searching for the explorer's lost memoirs. Vicky and Father John retrace two women's journeys, past and present, to uncover who is silencing researchers.

In this first Arapaho Ten Commandments mystery, based on the commandment I am the Lord thy God, Father John and Vicky Holden investigate a troubling case where greed, superstition, and misplaced devotion blur the line between faith and idolatry on the reservation.

When a priceless Arapaho ledger book disappears from a Denver museum, Vicky Holden is hired to find it. After a student researching the book is murdered, she and Father John must recover the artifact and reveal why someone will kill to own the tribe's history.

Decades after a reservation clinic arranged questionable adoptions, an Arapaho woman's search for her birth family turns deadly. Father John and Vicky Holden investigate a long-ago baby-selling scheme, uncovering secrets powerful people would still kill to keep buried.

This Arapaho Ten Commandments story focuses on the fifth commandment, Honor thy father and thy mother. A fraught family dispute on the reservation forces Father John and Vicky Holden to consider what honoring elders looks like when past wrongs refuse to stay hidden.

In this Arapaho Ten Commandments short mystery, Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden confront the human cost of breaking the seventh commandment, Thou shalt not commit adultery, as love, loyalty, and betrayal collide on the Wind River Reservation.

When a nuclear waste storage project promises jobs and millions for the reservation, many Arapahos are eager to sign on. Vicky Holden fights the deal, and after a suspicious death and attempts on her life, she and Father John race to expose the scheme behind it.

As winter closes in on the Wind River Reservation, Father John finds a body in a roadside ditch that vanishes before police arrive. When a young man disappears and a woman is killed, he and Vicky Holden must confront both a human killer and whispers of ghost walkers.

During the Ethete powwow on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation, Arapaho tribal chairman Harvey Castle is found murdered and his nephew is accused. Father John O'Malley and attorney Vicky Holden follow a trail through oil money and old injustices to clear the young man's name.

A compact history of Denver's Tivoli Brewery and its landmark tower on the Auraria campus, charting how a nineteenth-century German-American brewery became a shopping center and student union while keeping its colorful past alive in the city.

Based on stories from the Speas family, this nonfiction book follows two generations of railroaders across Colorado's narrow-gauge lines. Long days, brutal winters, and near misses bring the high-country rail era to life in plainspoken, first-hand detail.

An in-depth biography of Chief Left Hand, the Southern Arapaho leader who tried to keep peace as white settlers poured into Colorado. Coel traces his life, the Sand Creek Massacre, and the removal of his people, blending careful research with vivid narrative.