After Dub is killed on a rabbit shoot, Okie is asked to become sheriff, and his first order of business becomes catching Dub’s murderer. Using the limited resources at hand, Okie is quickly able to piece together the events surrounding Dub’s death and is even able to link his murder to his parents’ murders. The two questions that are never answered satisfactorily are what the killer’s motive was (it is briefly touched upon, but is not convincing) and why the killer waited so long to kill Dub, given the reason for the elder Readys’ murders.

Coyote Revenge is a very sparse mystery much like the Oklahoma prairie during the late 1930’s. There are not a lot of suspects to grab on to, although the murderer is easy enough to pick out, the anger and events leading up to the murders are glossed over. The dialogue in the book is hard to read in places, as it is written in the vernacular. Rather than adding to the setting, it becomes a distraction in many places.

Fred Harris, an Oklahoma native has done a very admirable job in describing life in the Great Depression with pain-staking details that show careful research into that period of history. Coyote Revenge is a quick read that will be enjoyed by those who favor pre-World War II history.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry