Some good elements

This book has some really good elements but it is let down by some preachiness, a clunky style, and poor narration.
The story of a cop who moves to a new area and shakes things up with both the local police and the Lakota Tribal police of the reservation intrigued me. The book has two main threads: the murders and corruption, and the settling in and making friends and enemies of Mike, in both the native American and non-native communities. The twist of his being a follower of Lakota spirituality is well realised and makes this a bit different.
The Crimes almost didn't need to be there other than as a plot device to highlight the tensions between communities and police services. The solving of them is not the main focus of the book which is fine but it sort of starts more central and fizzles out a bit as the relationships and conflicts become more important, and although we get an outcome there are a lot of questions unasked as well as unanswered.
The getting to know the locals and the information about the reservation lifestyles and politics were interesting but there were info-dumps and a lack of integration into a wider narrative. In my opinion a bit more show and a bit less tell would have been better.
The author has a real talent for making the places seem real, not just the wider environment but the smaller locales; the RV, the lodge, the cafe. They were all very believable, as were the portraits of the people who populated them.
For me the style of this book was very old fashioned and at times the reader is treated as if we have never seen or read a crime story before. For example I don't need to be told what every acronym means and I think if the author feels people need this they should just add a glossary.
I also felt that more finesse in the telling would have been a better way to highlight racist and cultural issues.
The narrator was really not to my liking, his voice was not varied enough, there were mouth sounds which really should have been edited out in the production process, and sometimes it sounded as though he was wearing false teeth that didn't fit properly.
Having said all that this is not a bad read and a generally pleasant way to while away a few hours in a place that felt very real but very different to my own. I think I would prefer to read the kindle version of any others in the series though, unless the narrator is changed.

I received a free copy of this and am leaving this honest review voluntarily.

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