The sign in the window of a hardware store on the Main Street of Dubois,
Wyoming, stopped me in my tracks. Butch Cassidy? Here? I opened the heavy oak
door and stepped into a treasure/junk huntersโ dream. Everything you can imagine
had been jammed onto sagging shelves and hung from hooks: shovels, axes,
pitchforks, hammers, screws, nails, hinges, brackets, chains, knobs, saddles,
tack, chaps, ropes, gun racks, guns, oilcans, generators. Smells of dust and
grease and dried leather clogged the air. Yes, I could imagine Butch Cassidy
browsing through all this stuff.
Tacked on the wall was a poster of Butch himself with his wide grin and cowboy
hat and the story of how he used to shop here in 1890 to buy supplies for his
ranch just outside of town.
Just outside of town? That meant Butch Cassidy had ranched next to the Wind
River Reservation which lies south of Dubois. I couldnโt believe my luck. I had
been writing crime novels set among the Arapahos on the reservation for almost
twenty years. Before that I wrote history, and I will forever remain a history
nut. Even though my novels are contemporary, with two modern-day sleuths, Vicky
Holden, Arapaho attorney, and Father John OโMalley, Jesuit priest, the stories
always dive into the past. I am fascinated by old crimes, frauds and injustices
and by the larger-than-life western characters whose lives intersected with the
Arapahos. I stared at Butchโs grinning face knowing I had just found another novel.
Writing about the past requires doing a lot of fun research. I read all the
books on Butch Cassidy that I could lay my hands on. I crossed the reservation
and spoke with Arapaho friends who were generous enough to pass on family
stories about Butch. Everybody knew him, it seemed, and everybody liked him. He
never missed a get-together on the rez or the chance to dance with the girls. If
you needed help, Butch was your man. Once, when a neighboring rancher took sick,
Butch pitched in and kept his ranch going until the neighbor was well.
For Butch, ranching was an attempt to go straight, but it didnโt last long.
After a couple years, he was back on the outlaw trail, rustling horses and
robbing banks and trains. There simply was more money in it than in ranching.
But Butch never forgot his friends on the reservation. He visited many times
over the yearsโsometimes hiding out from posses and sheriffs in hot pursuit.
None of his friends ever gave him up. Still generous, Butch would share his
loot. He helped ranchers pay off mortgages before the banks could foreclose, and
I suspect he enjoyed the irony that the banks were paid off with the money he
had liberated.
Before I could start writing the novel, I had to find a way to connect Butch
Cassidy to the present. I found the connection in an old rumor that Butch had
buried treasure on the rez. It made sense. After all, he was on the run, and if
the posses ever caught up with himโthey never didโthey would help themselves to
the loot. Why wouldnโt he bury it somewhere to be reclaimed later?
I started asking the โwhat if?โ questions I always ask when thinking through a
novel. What if someone today found the treasure Butch left behind? And what if
someone else wanted that treasure badly enough to commit murder?
With the connection made, the novel took off. Vicky and Father John swung into
action. Other characters stepped onto the stage to play their roles: Cutter, who
may or may not be who he seems, Ruth, the air-headed widow desperate for a
better life. Butch himself appeared in several chapters, hiding out on a former
girlfriendโs ranch in the 1890s and leaving behind a map to buried treasure.
Once the pieces were in place,
The Man Who Fell From the Sky, like all
of my novels, seemed to pretty much write itself. All I had to do was type the
words into my computer.
Margaret Coel is the New York Times best-selling author of the
acclaimed Wind River mystery series set
among the Arapahos on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation and featuring
Jesuit priest Father John O'Malley and Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden.
She is a native Coloradan who hails from a pioneer Colorado family. The West โ
the mountains, plains, and vast spaces โ are in her bones, she says. She moved
out of Colorado on two occasions โ to attend Marquette University and to spend a
couple of years in Alaska. Both times she couldn't wait to get back.
She writes in a small study in her home on a hillside in Boulder. The window
frames a view of the Rocky Mountains and the almost-always blue sky. A herd of
deer are usually grazing just outside, and one summer a couple of years ago, a
mountain lion made its home closeby.
"Every day,"she says, "I drink in the West."
Wind River
#19
New York Times bestselling author Margaret Coel returns to Wind
River with Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John OโMalley investigating
a lethal link between legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy and a present-day
murderโฆ
When Robert Walking Bearโs body is found in the Wind River mountains, his
death appears to be accidentalโexcept for the fact that he had been hunting for
Butch Cassidyโs buried loot with a map he had gotten from his grandfather, a map
believed to have been drawn by the leader of the Hole in the Wall gang himself.
It isnโt long before rumors circulate that Robert was murdered by his own
cousins to get the map and find the treasure themselves. Despite there being no
evidence of foul play, the gossip gains credibility when both Arapaho attorney
Vicky Holden and Father John OโMalley are contacted by an anonymous Arapaho
claiming to have witnessed Robertโs killing.
When one of Robertโs cousins falls prey to another deadly accident, Vicky and
Father John are convinced the victim is the witness who confided in them, and
the hunt for the killer is on in earnestโbefore more die in search of Cassidyโs
cache.
Mystery Woman Sleuth
[Berkley, On Sale: August 2, 2016, Paperback /
e-Book (reprint), ISBN: 9780425280317 / eISBN: 9780698191280]
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