Winter Counts

ANTHONY AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL - THRILLER AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL - EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL

A groundbreaking thriller about a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of a heroin influx.

Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that's hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil's nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.

They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.

Winter Counts is a tour-de-force of crime fiction, a bracingly honest look at a long-ignored part of American life, and a twisting, turning story that's as deeply rendered as it is thrilling.

About the author. David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation, is the author of Winter Counts, which won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, the Thriller Award for Best First Novel, and was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. He received the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship and is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from MacDowell, Ucross, Sewanee, and Tin House. A professor of English and Native American and Indigenous Studies at Stony Brook University, he lives in New York and Colorado with his family.