Fascinating insight into the Kiowa culture and the current struggle to hold on to their heritage while the world around tries to shred every bit of profit they can out of them. It's crazy to me that the US government doesn't protect native culture - it's upsetting to see that people don't value our collective human history and richness. Learning bout all that was very interesting.
This book is also a thriller with a mystery, and from the beginning, we are taken onto a ride to figure out a missing person, a body, stollen artifacts... quite a lot of things actually. The tension is very well built. But for some reason, I didn't quite manage to stay interested and it took a long time to read. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

This was a novel that I could not put down. With breathtaking ease, DM Rowell brings the reader into the world at the crossroads of what it means to be of multiple cultures. Weaving the mystery within Mae, or "Mud's" hometown where she grew up among her Kiowa family, and has to find her grandfather, as well as her role as a successful business owner in the fast-paced marketing industry. As she and her cousin investigate to get to the bottom of the mystery of disappearing tribal heirlooms and the fracking going on within the lands, she showcases the importance of spirit, belief, and family through this daring novel. It has a perfect pace that will leave readers unable to resist turning the page... until at the end of this high-stakes adventure.

Never Name the Dead is a story about Mud, a Kiowa woman who has left her life in Oklahoma to spread her wings as Mae in Silicon Valley. Decades later, she receives a call from her grandfather that she must return home. His call is so out of character, she rushes home to find herself thrust into a story of mystery, missing persons, murder, betrayal, fracking, and theft of tribal objects.

I loved reading about Mud and the Kiowa people. I also appreciated the way the author highlighted how Mud was torn between her tribe and her life that came after she left her family in Oklahoma. It was important to see how both groups in her life treated her as “different.”

This book was such a fun, fast read and I’m excited that it looks like it will be a series. I can’t wait to see where Mud’s adventures take her next.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was shared on GoodReads and Instagram on April 19. Links are posted below

<i>Never Name the Dead</i> is a murder mystery immersed in the culture of the Kiowa Indian nation of Oklahoma. Mae Sawpole (Mud) is an ambitious businesswoman in California who is drawn by her back to Oklahoma by her Grandfather and her love for the Kiowa heritage. <i>Never Name the Dead</i> is a debut my novel by D.M. Rowell.

Mud is called back home by her grandfather to help him with a mysterious problem. She’s in very busy in her business which is coming to a critical point but she can’t refuse a request from her grandfather. When she arrives at the airport, he doesn’t meet her. This is not like him and so starts a mystery that involves murder, betrayal, the near death of a culture. The Kiowa people are selling their sacred artifacts to deal with their extreme poverty. There are people who are underpaying for these artifacts and sending them away to where the people will not have access to them. As well, the fracking industry is competing for land that is critical to the tribe’s survival. In the end Mud’s training by her grandfather helps her through some of these difficult times and help her people. She finds she is able to reconnect with her culture and she is able to relate again once again to her family.

Mud is a very interesting character. She is obviously a very competent businesswoman. However, at the same time she is very important to her people as a storyteller among the Kiowa tribe. She must reconcile her role in both these worlds. This makes for a very interesting and complex character. Mud’s grandfather, although not directly in the story, is also interesting as seen through other people’s comments about how much he is respected and how wise he is. One short encounter is enough to solve the mystery that Mud has been trying to deal with through her entire visit.

The story itself is very interesting because it details the critical situation of the Kiowa tribe is in and how it must quickly do something to survive in the long run. The artefacts that the tribe has are extremely valuable to people outside the tribe but the Kiowa heritage is in jeopardy if they are not careful about how these valuables are handled. The fracking industry is also encroaching on Kiowa land and interest with the tribe is willing to cooperate with the industry to improve their economic conditions. Both these pressures could be the end of the tribe if things do not change soon.

I recommend this book to anyone that’s interested in indigenous heritage and the danger it is in due to pressures around it. I give this story four on five. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this novel. I give the this review voluntarily.

Indigenous stories written by Indigenous Peoples are a hard to come by as ARCs and otherwise, when I read the synopsis on this one I requested and got the ARC relatively quickly.

Never Name the Dead was an intriguing concept and interesting read, but I found it hard to keep me focused. I enjoyed learning some new words in another language, and learn some about Kiowa peoples and how they do things.

This book really has me torn. While the mystery itself is captivating and multifaceted, the ending is just bland. It was a very long book of hype with no pay-off. Mae as the main character is a strong, independent, and proud woman. She is proud of her family and her Kiowa heritage. It makes liking her and her story very easy. That is about all this book has going for it.

While the author said in the beginning that they intended to preserve the Kiowa heritage within their writing, I was not expecting a history book. Full chapters were just history. Most of the novel was about Kiowa history. I respect the author wanting to do this, but it was oppressive while reading. If I made a drinking game out of every time the word Kiowa showed up, I would have been hospitalized by chapter four.

If the narration of the book about the tribe was removed, it might have been six, maybe seven chapters long instead of thirty-five. I think there is room within a novel to write about history and express the traditions of a Native American tribe, but this went overboard. If the author’s intent was to preserve history, then this should have been a very different book. This feels like a random mystery hidden in a non-fiction historical piece.

Overall, the plot and the mystery aspect of the story were engaging but disappointing and the rest left me wishing the book would just be over. Just when I thought the mystery would resolve, more history lessons. If I was not reviewing this book as an ARC reader, then I wouldn’t have finished it. I also saw the price for this on Amazon for pre-order and if I paid that much for this book I would be upset.

Fantastic debut novel of a young native woman finding her place within her family and her tribe. I enjoyed learning about Kiowa culture as well as the intriguing mystery surrounding her grandfather and his role within their Oklahoma community. I’d absolutely be interested in the follow up novel following Mud!

This was an excellent book that included an abundance of fantastic information about the Kiowa! I really enjoyed the deeper look in the Native history and current affairs. The mystery aspect felt more like a cosy mystery than a thriller to me, but that is just my take on it. I hope many readers take the time to read this excellent novel!

Thanks go to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

I love multicultural mysteries and really enjoyed learning about the Kiowa tribe in OK in Never Name the Dead. This was the highlight of the book for me.
Thanks to Net Galley and Crooked Lane Books for the advanced copy.
The main character, Mud, was lovely and I was rooting for her from the start. She is a very well-developed character – smart, successful, sassy, yet insecure in so many ways. I love that it was the call of her grandfather that ultimately gets her to return to her roots from her important job in Silicon Valley. I also appreciate a book that considers a “half breed”. Is she or is she not Kiowa and what does it take to really belong to a tribe? The flashbacks to her childhood and first love were insightful and helped me really understand her. If this is the first book of a series, the author has created a great leading lady for future adventures.
I’m impressed with this book as a debut but ultimately the mystery writing needs some work. The plot was choppy and there was quite a lot of rambling all while a dead body is sitting in the house. I like my mysteries to be a bit more believable! Too many detours can be easily edited next time around, and I expect great things from this talented new author.

Never Name the Dead is a mystery involving the Kiowa tribe in Oklahoma. I am Oklahoma born and raised so this aspect of the story was very appealing to me. I spent a couple of summers in the area where the book takes place so I was easily able to visualize the locations. I really enjoyed learning more about Kiowa traditions throughout the book and believe the use and explanations of the culture are one of the strong points of the book. The main character, Mae/Mud, is quite well-developed given that the events in the book really take place over one day. She is smart and thoughtful and is highly successful in her career. I understood some of her feelings about how to balance her Kiowa heritage. I will say that the ending was not completely satisfying to me as it was quite abrupt. An entire line of mystery was unresolved, to be dealt with “tomorrow.” I understand that this is book one of an assumed series and I expect this inquiry will be further explored in the next book. However, it is unsatisfying to have it “dangling.” The fallout or ripple effects from the revelations at the end of the book are also not explored. The book simply ends at the end of that day.

Overall, I would pick up the next book in the series, with the hope for some resolution as well as additional exploring of the people and places involved in the tribe.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

At first it took me a while to get into the storyline, but once I did I was hooked. I really enjoyed this book.

This one was good . I loved the cultural aspects and felt it was a well paced just overall good book
Thanks for letting me review this book to Netgalley and the publisher

This was a great mystery, though I'm realizing that slower burn mysteries aren't my favorite genre. The writing was great, the characters were super well-developed, and the story was compelling throughout.

Fascinating story. Mud is such an inspirational character with determination to figure things out. I enjoyed how fast paced this book was for me. Kept me completely interested. Such a fascinating read. The author surely knows how to captivate an audience!

Never name the dead was an enjoyable read. The mystery kept you intrigued u til the end.

I enjoyed learning about the kiowa culture and traditions.

Never Name the Dead is a face paced thriller/mystery. It is a tightly woven story, and kept me in suspense until the very end. I thought the plot was very well done and the characters well fleshed out. I enjoyed reading and learning about Kiowa traditions and culture. Highly recommend for mystery book lovers.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange of my honest opinion.

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed parts of this book very much -- getting to learn a little bit about Kiowa culture, and the relationship between Mud/Mae and her grandfather and cousin. However, the denouement left a lot to be desired. Georgie was a loose end, and I didn't really buy the way the villain fell apart at the end. The whole setup felt a little artificial.

I was quite excited to read this book but was left disappointed. The two storylines felt very disjointed and unnecessary. There were long inner thought monologues that never quite seemed to end and a lot of repetition of already explained practices. The main character has potential and it is a great addition to the Native fiction catalog, just a little refining and editing needed for the next in the series, of which I hope there is one.

Great mystery set in the Kiowa native culture. The explanations of the culture and language were fascinating. Once you get to know her, one can understand her reluctance to return to the scene of lost love and her identity as "Mud". This is a story of redemption, growth and acceptance. You want to cheer when Mud ties all the pieces together with the help of her cousin Denny. I thoroughly enjoyed this tale.

This was atrociously written, relying on some serious willing suspension of disbelief, cardboard characters, and the idea of the "magic" Native American. The dialogue was unrealistic, the plotting dull, and far too much of the story told, rather than unfolded through action, for readers.