Bantam
Published February 24, 2026
Reviewed by Barbara Fister
Dels has had to leave the relay early. She was competing in the indigenous sport of racing that involves jumping on the back of a horse, riding around a track, then leaping off and jumping onto another horse, all at breakneck speed. It’s a rough sport, and a point of Indian pride. Her team is hard to beat, but she has injured her knee, so starts home with her teenage cousin, towing a horse trailer. But as they drive down the highway, one of her tires flattens and she has to steer into an abandoned rest area. It’s rural Oklahoma and help is far away. When a semi truck pulls up, blinding them with its lights, it soon becomes clear it’s not there to provide aid. In minutes, Dels’ cousin is lying unconscious on the ground and Dels is abducted, a fate all too familiar to indigenous women.
Perry Antelope, a Choctaw police officer working for Oklahoma City, knows the missing woman is at terrible risk. With her partner Sophia Burns, a former Olympian shot putter, and Raquel Hunter, a lighthorse woman (tribal police) she races to find clues before all trace of Dels is erased. It may be that a dispute over an allotment is somehow involved. Dels owns a share of a plot of land her family obtained when the government split up their reservation, and she clings to it fiercely while her uncle, a co-owner, is set on selling it to a company that wants to exploit the oil that may be under it. It becomes clear that someone wants to put an end to the search, putting Perry’s life in danger. The three female detectives form a formidable trio. Each of them is athletic and their strength is put to the test repeatedly. The clues eventually lead to a ghost town where piles of toxic mining waste still blow through the abandoned city, all of it in danger of collapsing into the honeycomb of mine shafts below.
This thriller by a Choctaw historian and award-winning writer is an assured and compelling story that uses threads about Indian relay racing, land claims, and the legacy of toxic exploitation of natural resources to weave a plot about missing and murdered indigenous women. The pacing and character development work together with a vivid setting to bring to life perspectives on Native American issues while providing readers with an exciting adventure.