The Wolf and the Crow

Prominent Redoubt County rancher Hal Lamar and retired Smokey River Bureau of Indian Affairs Agency Superintendent William Black Spotted Horse could not be more different. Forced to travel to a different continent to cooperate in a daring rescue mission in Argentina when their beloved mutual granddaughter is kidnapped, Hal and William must put aside their dislike and mistrust of one another to face a common enemy. The plot involves rectifying illegal taking of Indian lands, battling a South American drug cartel, and the uneasy relations between cultures on different sides of history. With a child’s life at stake, the two men must learn to trust each other with their own lives as they race against a woman’s intricate plan to avenge her father’s self-exile in Argentina as a result of family complications. Set against the backdrop of a Lakota Indian Reservation in South Dakota, readers are introduced to some of the challenges of growing up Native in the United States and the ways in which indigenous people have been taken advantage of. The book also shares some of the unique skills and knowledge that have enabled the Lakota to survive economic and societal inequities. One of the characters is a medicine man and his contributions to the rescue mission are as important as the technical aspects that allow Hal and William to keep in touch with each other and their family members. Based on Joseph Marshall’s own Native survival skills learned from his Lakota grandparents who raised him, as well as his culture’s storytelling tradition, The Wolf and the Crow is cinematic in its descriptive detail and sharp dialogue. One can easily imagine this story as a movie, which is true of all Marshall’s contemporary fiction. As the narrative unfolds, readers will feel they are on a journey that is both tense and tender, which is this author’s gift.