Betrayal at the Buffalo Ranch

In Hoklotubbe’s solid fourth mystery set in Oklahoma’s Cherokee country (after 2014’s Sinking Suspicions), series heroine Sadie Walela is dismayed to learn that Angus Clyborn, a new neighbor of hers, plans to create the Buffalo Ranch, a private hunting preserve where guests can shoot buffalo. Clyborn seeks to acquire as much contiguous acreage as possible, by methods both legal and questionable, and erect huge fences. When an unidentified man is shot dead with a homemade arrow on the edge of Sadie’s property, she assists her lover, Lance Smith, the deputy sheriff of Delaware County, in the subsequent investigation. Lance soon has other law enforcement problems to deal with, in particular keeping the peace when the members of COWA (Caring for Wild Animals) come out to protest Clyborn’s ranch scheme. Along the way to the satisfying solution of the murder, Hoklotubbe explores present-day Cherokee culture. Sadie’s witnessing the rare birth of a white buffalo, an animal sacred to the Cherokee, is a highlight. Hoklotubbe keeps getting better in this appealing regional series. (Feb.)