As the story opens, Will Kaiser is taken into custody for the murder of his father. Will is suspected because he was seen leaving the scene of the crime – the Kaiser home. Both Wills were drunks, and mean drunks as well, so the Sheriff believes that Will may have killed his father in a drunken rage. Will's wife Lena vows to stick by him until after the trial, but then she is through with his "dark drunken side."

Paulette Callen dwells on the minutiae of life in a small narrow-minded rural town. Lena's neighbors are quick to assure her that Will is incapable of murder, but are even quicker to criticize his way of life. She has only one friend who she can count on – the new schoolteacher, Gustie, lately from Philadelphia.

Gustie lives outside of town in a small house furnished as part of her salary. Since school terms take up only five months of the year, she has lots of free time, and often drops out of sight, only to reappear later. Gustie's life story parallels the murder investigation and touches it only at the end.

Gustie is a mystery to the town, but is treated as one of them when a stranger arrives looking for her. All deny knowing her, and since Gustie is out of town, it takes a good deal of effort to find her. Gustie is at Crow Kills visiting Dorcas, an Indian grandmother who provides Gustie with badly needed emotional support. Also helping Gustie's spirit reach equilibrium is Jordis, the granddaughter of Dorcas. The maturation of their romantic relationship is every bit as important to this novel as the discovery of the murderer.

Charity is filled with the unexpected, and events gradually bring this novel to a bizarre but logical conclusion. The murder mystery is secondary to the author's exploration of the mindset of the Sioux in responding with adversity – a mindset that is contrasted with that of the Anglos. The author also addresses a number of social issues that have very little to do with the mystery. Paulette Callen has done many things well in Charity, but the mystery was not one of the stronger threads.

While I am not given to the use of superlatives, this was the most unusual historical mystery novel I have ever read. And perhaps one of the most somber.

--Thea Davis