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I feel like I do a halfway decent job of keeping up with what books are coming out and when, but here’s one that totally surprised me. 

I read David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s WINTER COUNTS back when it was released in the fall of 2020 (which feels like another lifetime ago), and while the book certainly had all the makings of a series-starter, I had no clue that book two, WISDOM CORNER was coming out until just days prior to its release. So it was an awesome surprise, because WINTER COUNTS was such a great read! And I think WISDOM CORNER is even better! 

Virgil Wounded Horse is trying to leave his days as the private enforcer of South Dakota’s Rosebud Reservation behind him. But this is a whole lot easier said than done for someone like Virgil.

It’s about a year after the events of WINTER COUNTS, and right away, trouble arrives in the shape of members of a neighboring reservation looking to sell bootlegged alcohol on Rosebud land. The novel practically opens with an absolute bone-jarring brawl and well…looks like Virgil is back in the mix.

Meanwhile, Virgil’s girlfriend, Marie Short Bear, is running for a position on the tribal council against a man named Mitch Gagnon. This whole subplot becomes really important as the story progresses, but it also provides us with a pretty in-depth look at the political process on the reservation. 

There’s some incredibly heavy stuff in this book, with Virgil getting involved in a complicated land dispute that finds him coming face to face with the horrors of Native boarding schools. Places where Native children were ripped away from their families, abused, forced to abandon their culture, and in many cases, killed. It all cuts a little too close to home for Virgil, and it’s really heartbreaking. 

There’s some great new characters introduced here. As Virgil is looking into the atrocities of the boarding schools he meets a really cool hacker (well…she’s not exactly a hacker, but close enough) named Val Tobacco. Val really helps Virgil a lot in this one & seems like she’ll be a great ally for him going forward. 

Then there’s Rose Charging Cloud, the chief of police for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. If Rose was in WINTER COUNTS, then I’m just forgetting her. Her & Virgil are like two sides of the same coin: both deeply committed to providing justice for folks on the reservation, but in diametrically opposed ways. Needless to say, Rose is not exactly fond of Virgil. In fact she’s usually screaming and swearing at him and it’s kind of hilarious. But a begrudging sort of respect slowly develops between the two & it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out in future books. 

There was so much in this book that made me pause & search things out on my phone. So many things I just didn’t know about. I’ve heard about the boarding schools & read into them a little bit here and there, and the author references several relevant nonfiction books in his author’s note. But as an example of one of the things that was a complete shock to me: I had no idea that for a significant period of time (roughly 1883-1978), Native American spirituality itself was criminalized. So different types of ceremonies or possession of sacred objects was technically illegal. It’s horrifying & I’m embarrassed to have not known about it prior to this. 

This series is great so far & I’m hoping to see more of Virgil Wounded Horse in the future! WISDOM CORNER sets up a potential book three in a really interesting way, so I’m excited to see how the various storylines play out. 

Big thanks to Ecco for sending this one my way!