Lakota FBI Agent Manny Tanno in Spirit Road Mystery Series

Manny Tanno left the Pine Ridge Reservation years ago, leaving behind memories and the heartache from his older brother, Reuben’s incarceration. Tanno could never understand why Reuben killed Billy Two Moons, but his brother’s confession had ended Tanno’s worship of his older brother which made it easier to leave and not look back. Tanno thought he would never return to Pine Ridge but another murder has brought him home.

Land developer, Jason Red Cloud, was opening a resort near Pine Ridge Village which would bring much needed income to the impoverished area, but just as the building had begun Red Cloud was found murdered at the building site. This is a big case and the FBI was called in with Agent Tanno investing the case. Reuben is one of the suspects in Red Cloud’s murder case, and at the same time Tanno is still haunted by Reuben’s earlier conviction. Unable to stop himself Tanno delves into both cases and finds that the past and present are entangled in Death Along the Spirit Road.

This is the first novel in the Spirit Road Mystery Series by C.M. Wendelboe featuring Agent Tanno who investigates murder but also reconnects with being Lakota and life on the reservation. Set in South Dakota at the Pine Ridge Reservation these descriptive mysteries have both humor and sorrow that is drawn from the complicated lives of Tanno, the officers and their families. The second book in the series is Death Where the Bad Rocks Live.