Thank you Penguin Random House Audio for the ALC and Berkley Books, #partner, for the advanced e-copy of Mask of the Deer Woman in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Berkley Books / PRH Audio
Published: January 21, 2025
Summary:
To find a missing young woman, the new tribal marshal must also find herself.
At rock bottom following her daughter’s murder, ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr has nowhere to go but back to her roots. Starr’s father never talked much about the reservation that raised him, but they need a new tribal marshal as much as Starr needs a place to call home.
In the last decade, too many young women have disappeared from the rez. Some dead, others just… gone. Now, local college student Chenoa Cloud is missing, and Starr falls into an investigation that leaves her drowning in memories of her daughter—the girl she failed to save.
Starr feels lost in this place she thought would welcome her. And when she catches a glimpse of a figure from her father’s stories, with the body of a woman and the antlers of a deer, Starr can’t shake the feeling that the fearsome spirit is watching her, following her.
What she doesn’t know is whether Deer Woman is here to guide her or to seek vengeance for the lost daughters that Starr can never bring home.
My thoughts:
This was such a powerful debut and what I just found out is going to be the start of a new series. It’s such an atmospheric, captivating read and I have not stopped thinking about it since I finished the book.
Besides having cover envy – yes, I did go and buy a copy of the book for my bookshelves! – this book grabbed my attention because of the topics it explored, mainly that of missing Indigenous Women on reservations and how nothing is typically done about. While this book is fiction, it is rooted in reality and for that reason alone, I went through so many emotions reading it.
Our protagonist is the type of character I love. She’s deeply flawed, and while she is not always very likeable, she is a compelling character. Taking a new role with BIA, she returns to the reservation where her father grew up. She’s not happy in this role at the outset of this book and we see that, which makes some of her choices hard to swallow. By the end of the book, it’s like she’s almost done a complete 180, and part of that has to do with the case she takes on but the other part is that she begins to see visions of the Deer Woman. I loved watching her evolution and am excited to see how that continues throughout the series.
I loved the way the author wove the Native folklore into the story. The Deer Woman, a spirit that can be seen as both fearsome and mysterious, really got to Carrie and this is what kept me fully engaged. Carrie’s continual questioning of whether this was real or not kept had me hooked and that sense of whether we were dealing with just a legend or something else made for some intense moments.
This will absolutely be a top read for me – and I know it’s early in the year, but I’m calling it now. I loved it and will be recommending it to everyone I know. And I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book in this series. In the meantime, I know I’ll be rereading this one before that…good thing I have that print copy!
Audio thoughts:
This was amazing on audio and I’m glad I had the chance to listen to it. The narrator, Isabella Star Lablanc, did a fantastic job infusing just the right amount of emotion into her voice as needed. Whether you do audio or print, you cannot go wrong with this book!
Books in this series:
- Mask of the Deer Woman
- Wrath of the Water Tiger – due out Spring 2026
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