John Tall Wolf Books
Out for a day's adventure exploring the dry bed of Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, two young boys stumble upon a skeleton. It might be all that remains of a fugitive named Randy Bear Heart. Wanted for robbing three banks and killing three cops, Bear Heart was never brought to justice. The FBI is called on to determine how the outlaw avoided arrest for twenty-five years and who put him in the lake wearing chains. The BIA - Bureau of Indian Affairs - gets the very same job. Special Agent John Tall Wolf is put on the case because one of the dead cops was a Native American who worked at the Mercy Ridge Reservation. The FBI wants John to "coordinate all your efforts" through SAC Gilbert Melvin. John is having none of that, saying, "I'll conduct my investigation as I see fit." He doesn't even get along with his own boss, Marlene Flower Moon, head of the BIA's Office of Justice Services. While interviewing John for his job, Marlene was amused by his assertiveness, and asked him, "What do you want, a license to take scalps?" John said, "Yeah, that'd be good."
Special Agent John Tall Wolf of the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) describes his job like this: “I work at the intersection of Native American and mainstream cultures. If there’s a four-car pile-up, I try to sort things out.” The metaphor is particularly apt on the August morning in New Orleans when all the traffic lights turn green at the same time causing citywide gridlock and providing the perfect cover for a gang of eight men on motorcycles to rob the Thibodeaux State Bank. Normally, the FBI would have sole responsibility to investigate. This time, though, John is called in because the robbers were decked out as Native Americans, a 21st century take on a war party. John raises the idea that the warpaint and feathers might be misdirection. Then a group calling itself Red Nation Rising claims credit for the robbery. That name might be double entendre. Washington suspects that China might be at work in the shadows, testing cyberwarfare against the United States. John Tall Wolf and his FBI counterpart, Deputy Director Byron DeWitt, have to come up with answers, bag the crooks and make it fast.
When a classic Super Chief locomotive disappears between L.A. and Chicago and the case is handed to the BIA’s John Tall Wolf, he asks the obvious question, “How do you steal a train?” Once more, John is working with FBI Deputy Director Byron DeWitt, and the question he wants answered is a perennial favorite. “Are terrorists behind all this?” Other possible suspects are Native Americans and two feuding Silicon Valley tech billionaires who were among the last people to see the Super Chief off from L.A.’s Union Station. All trails lead to the one place John swore he’d never go: the reservation where he was born. Looks like a good place to avoid, too, when John learns his grandmother has put out a hit on him.
John Tall Wolf’s nemesis and sometimes boss, Marlene Flower Moon, has been nominated to become the next Secretary of the Interior. John has only himself to blame for that. He put in a good word for Marlene with his new acquaintance, the president. His thought was the new job would keep Marlene too busy to think about bothering him. If only. Marlene immediately comes up with an assignment for John. Go to the Cascade Mountains in Washington state and see if someone has set up an illegal marijuana growing operation on land belonging to a young high-tech billionaire named Frederic Strait. Of course, Marlene’s playing an angle. She’s seduced Strait so he’ll bankroll her ultimate political goal, the Oval Office. Marlene also intrigues John by telling him that Strait is a Native American who was adopted outside his tribe — just like John — and now calls himself Freddie Strait Arrow. Before John can even get the investigation off the ground, his fiancée, Rebecca Bramley, arrives with the news she might lose her job with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Further complications include the presence of a Mexican Marine, a drug cartel boss with CIA connections, four Canadian mercenaries, Coyote herself and a grizzly bear that seems determined to eat someone.
Jean Morrissey, the new President of the United States wants John Tall Wolf to join her Cabinet and become the next Secretary of the Interior. John wants nothing to do with that job. Further complicating matters, Marlene Flower Moon, John’s nemesis, has disappeared, and John can’t help but wonder what devilry she might be plotting. On top of that, John’s great-grandfather, Alan White River, the mastermind of the Super Chief theft, has been released from prison early, his behavior to be supervised for two years by John. Happily, though, White River brings someone with him who has a problem for John to solve. Dr. Yvette Lisle, a medical researcher and a member of the Omaha Indian tribe, just might have solved the problem of overcoming drug-resistant bacteria, only her laptop computer with all her data on it has been stolen from her laboratory. That’s the bad news. The good news is finding the computer gives John a perfect excuse for stalling the President. Except … finding the computer might be a lot more dangerous than John thinks, and the President gives him just three days to crack the case before she turns it over to the FBI.
John Tall Wolf and his wife, Rebecca Bramley, take Alan White River to Paris. White River’s goal is to retrieve sacred Native American artifacts that are about to be sold at auction. John, of course, has a plan. Only it looks like his first idea will fall short. So John has to consider crossing the same line White River did when he stole the Super-Chief: becoming a thief for a noble cause.
John finds out that even death can’t stop his great-great-grandmother, Awinita, from nagging him. In a dream, she tells him to build a monument to her husband, John’s late great-great grandfather, Alan White River, the man who stole the Super Chief locomotive. Awinitia wants the monument to be big. Specifically, she wants John to purchase a mountain and commission a 100-foot tall statue of Alan. Once word of that idea leaks out, it catches on like wildfire among the super-rich and egotistical of the country. Billionaires of all sorts decide they want to buy their own mountains and be remembered as giants. One even decides he wants to be the only one to be so honored, and he’s willing to kill off the competition. That leaves,John facing a tremendous challenge. Fortunately for him, Marlene, a/k/a Coyote, and a number of old friends join forces with him in a fight to the finish.