The innocence of Gracie's youth and her anguish in relating her sister's life story work like a magnet to pull the tale along. Querry, a Choctaw, chooses Arizona, his present home, as the setting for this excellent first novel. It is a landscape peopled by Natives, where Navajo, Apache and Hopi reservations jostle up against one another, literally and figuratively. The book deals with the murder of its eponymous heroine. In the process it becomes a fine vignette of modern Indian existence, giving readers a genuinely felt view of the pow-wows, dances, rodeos, alcoholism, intertribal rivalry and poverty that are the facts of life for many Native Americans. At the beginning of the novel, Bernadette is found dead and her drunken husband, Anderson George, has disappeared. The story of their tumultuous union is told in flashback from the points of view of Gracie, Bernadette's sister, and Starr Stubbs, a white woman who knew her but may have been less than a friend. With his compelling storytelling, Querry leads the reader methodically and inexorably back in time (to witness the final moments of Bernadette's short life) and deeper into the darkness of the witchcraft that destroys both her and Anderson. The innocence of Gracie's youth and her anguish in relating her sister's life story work like a magnet to pull the tale along. (first edition) – Publishers Weekly
This excellent debut by a promising new novelist should appeal to anyone interested in the Southwest and Native Americans. Bernadette Lefthand got killed, but it wasn't in no car wreck, and the police are looking for her Navajo husband. The story instantly pulls its reader into the events surrounding a young Pueblo Indian's bizarre and brutal murder. Set on the Navajo and Jicarilla reservations, this novel explores the effects that poverty, alcoholism, and witchcraft have on the communities. Gracie, Bernadette's younger sister, and Starr Stubbs, the white woman for whom Bernadette kept house, tell most of the story. The chapters flip-flop between the narrators' points of view, cleverly exposing the contrast between Indian and white perspectives and their cultural differences. This excellent debut by a promising new novelist should appeal to anyone interested in the Southwest and Native Americans. (first edition) – Library Journal
The best novel of its type since Leslie Sitko'sCeremony. The Death Of Bernadette Lefthandshould rank among the classics of American fiction.(first edition) – Tony Hillerman, author ofThe Blessing Way
