Indian Killer

Indian Killer
By Sherman Alexie
1996
Warner Books
420 pages
ISBN: 0-446-673-70-6
Read: 9/4/12-9/8/12

I was looking forward to reading this book. I have been very impressed with Sherman Alexie, and his collection War Dances is one of the best things I read last year. In particular, I was deeply moved by the short story "Salt" from that collection, so much so that I wrote about it in my (rarely updated) other blog. To be honest though, I was also a little unsure what to expect. Alexie generally writes very lyrical fiction laced with dark humor and deep issues of identity. Many of his short pieces seem to dance along the narrow line between poetry and prose without ever coming down on one side or the other. Because of that, "murder mystery" seemed a break from type. And while sometimes such breaks lead to amazing things, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a little wary.

But the term "murder mystery" has very little to do with the contents of this novel, and frankly I think that the people that wrote the blurbs do it a significant disservice when they suggest that it is a thriller, even a "literary thriller," whatever that means. Certainly, this novel is "about" a series of murders committed in Seattle by a serial killer known as the Indian Killer, but the actual plot of this novel is only the frame on which beautifully complex characterizations hang sharply cutting commentary on issues of identity, community, and some of the weaknesses of the human condition. While this is certainly darker than what I have read of Alexie's other work, it was hardly a true break from type: beautiful, lyrical fiction with a bit of a bite.

Interestingly, several of the reviews on Amazon and elsewhere seem to have fundamentally misunderstood the story, or at least what I took from it. I hate when people do that.