Sharpshooter

Set in 2001 in the dying Montana town of Sanctuary, Sharpshooter pits the local lawman, half Jew and half Crow, Redfawn Kravitz, against the recent killer of U.S. Senate candidate Jeb Holloway, a powerful man with lots of enemies. Red's best friend is a Northern Cheyenne, Standing Bear Hatcher, a legendary All Pro linebacker, former pro wrestler and current owner of The Elk, the only bar in fifty miles.

The weapon that killed Holloway is a Sharps buffalo rifle. The lethal slug seems to have come through time, as if the murderer stepped out out of the past, then melted back to just after the Battle of Little Bighorn, when the Holloways began grabbing up land at bargain prices. As the investigation gains ground, both suspects and witnesses begin dropping like flies.

National media and Federal agents descend on Sanctuary while Red and Bear huddle to figure out who is doing this killing and why. These conversations occur in Plains Indian sign language while the two fish for cutthroat trout in the Little Bighorn, pinched between the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations. Increasingly Red is haunted by the echoes of long-dead Indian warriors, trying to warn him about unrealized dangers. The dead chiefs and braves who considered Bearpaw mountain sacred seem to want him to take a stand with Bear against the investors who want to develop a ski resort on its slopes.

Sharpshooter is modern in the sense of being present-day, but Western in terms of the ruggedness and traditional or tribal views of its surviving Indians and characters. It isn't likely that you'll guess whodunnit until the last chapter. Three romantic subplots add welcome relief from this otherwise hard land and its enduring people. As beautifully written as the story is gripping, this one may just be literature.