Intro over, story's starting to take shape in this volume - by the end there's a lot going on, a whole local history rubbing up against national tension. But it hangs together well, in a darkly violent melee kind of way. Next please. ( )

Dash continues his role as Red Crow's man and has an encounter with Catcher, Red Crow's background reveals the atrocities that was inflicted on the natives by the Christian church and his motivation becomes clear, the Hmongs and their stakes in the casino are introduced, Diesel makes his mark on the Rez and has an encounter with Dash, Catcher explains his plan and has a vision, Dino makes an unfortunate choice, and Gina comes to her tragic end. It's dark, it's gruesome, it's violent and cruel, it hits you in the stomach and, before you have caught your breath, comes back and punches you again. It's about humans, trying to survive in the harshest of worlds, desperately clinging to some ideal that they've half forgotten, partially due to an all-encompassing cynicism and partially due to their own growing coldness, but humans at the core, hurt again and again by their hope for something good that, seemingly inevitably, always turns to bad. It's a story that won't leave you alone for a long time after you've closed its pages. It's one of the best examples of noir I have ever encountered and I can only hope I encounter something as good again. ( )