Winter Counts

A Novel

by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

paperback, 336 pages

Published July 6, 2021 by Ecco Press, Ecco.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-296895-1

(11 reviews)

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.

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.

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.

9 editions

KnitAFett reviewed Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Really good read, but reality is depressing.

4 stars

Actual : 4.5 stars

Weiden is an Indigenous author that I picked up for a book challenge that is meant to make me branch out my reading more. This was definitely an enjoyable read and the pacing was really good through the whole book.

There are so many issues that are covered in this book that everyone should be more aware of because they still happen to this day. The main storyline running through this book covers how there's a massive disconnect between what tribal police are able to take care of and what the feds deem to be worth their time. The disgust and disdain for the government is sprinkled liberally through, and justifiably so. These messages are so important to be able to put out there, and I'm glad that authors like Weiden are able to use their novels to get those messages out.

I don't even know …

Actual : 4.5 stars

I don't even know how else to explain this book, other than that you should really read it. It's one that I will purchase a copy of and keep on my shelf. I only give it 4.5 stars because the audiobook was a little hard to listen to. The narrator did a bit of a weird voice when reading the women's lines, so I wasn't able to stick with it and had to switch to the physical copy instead.

Zelanator reviewed Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Review of 'Winter Counts' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Excellent historical fiction that ties in with many scholarly works on the opioid and heroin epidemics and indigenous rights and history (especially of the Lakota).

barbara fister reviewed Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Review of 'Winter Counts' on 'LibraryThing'

No rating

I loved everything about this book, from the ambivalence of the main character - a man who isn't a full-blooded Lakota but who is culturally a full member of the Rosebud community - to the relationship with his nephew to the way the boy's brush with drugs illuminates failures of criminal "justice" on the rez. I know the setting, and it all felt true, while showing me things I hadn't seen. The writing is often poetic, but also at times really funny, angry, sad, all handled with the right amount of restraint. An excellent novel.