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“To find a missing young woman, the new tribal marshal must also find herself. When she catches a glimpse of a figure from her father’s stories, with the body of a woman and the antlers of a deer, Starr can’t shake the feeling that the fearsome spirit is watching her, following her. What she doesn’t know is whether Deer Woman is here to guide her or to seek vengeance for the lost daughters that Starr can never bring home.”

Mask of the Deer Woman, Laurie L. Dove

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

This is a book about rage and despair. We follow Carrie Starr as she begins a new job as a tribal marshal on the reservation her father grew up on. Starr had recently lost her teen daughter, and battles with that reality throughout the book. Starr is also dealing with the loss of her job as a police detective, which is what brought her to the rez in the first place. Starr is depressed, a barely functioning alcoholic, and an outsider to the community she’s been thrust into. 

The tone of this book was raw and haunted, and that atmosphere seemed to permeate every scene. We follow Starr as she begrudgingly investigates the disappearance of another young woman, and slowly realizes there may be more than meets the eye. I was desperate to know what happened next because I was desperate for it to be something good. 

As the story progresses, we meet a variety of characters who are also in their own stages of grief. There are the parents of missing girls, heads of the community, and other members of the reservation who are all deeply affected by loss. And there are also characters actively adding to that grief, like a suspicious rancher and a power-hungry mayor. We get a few chapters with different POVs and interconnected timelines that add to the overall mystery. 

What really turned this book into a 5-star read for me was the Deer Woman. At first, she seems to just be a figment of Starr’s alcohol-affected imagination. But as the plot builds, the Deer Woman becomes more and more present. Her slow addition to the story made it even more compelling to me, and changed the book from a standard thriller to a more unique message.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys traditional thrillers, is interested in reading a book about Indigenous people and the realities of life on a reservation, or anyone looking for a modern mythology retelling!

Thanks to Berkley for the free book  in exchange for an honest review!