Dakota, Gwen Florio
Dakota, Gwen Florio
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Dakota

Author: Gwen Florio

Narrator: Caroline Shaffer

Unabridged: 9 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/21/2014

Synopsis

Former foreign correspondent Lola Wicks is getting a little bored in Magpie, Montana, where she landed at a small local newspaper after being downsized from her job in Kabul. Then Judith Calf Looking, a local Blackfeet Indian girl missing for several months, turns up dead in a snowbank with a mysterious brand on her forearm. The sheriff—whose romantic relationship with Lola provides Magpie with its most delicious gossip in years—thinks Judith probably froze to death while hitchhiking back to the reservation from wherever she'd been.But Lola hears rumors that Judith had been working as an exotic dancer in the North Dakota oil fields and further discovers that several Blackfeet girls, all known drug users, have gone missing over the past year. She heads out to the oil patch to check things out, only to find herself in a place where men outnumber women a hundred to one, the law looks the other way, and life—especially her own—is cheap.Dakota shows the frightening underside of a boom-and-bust economy; of the effect on a small town when big-city money washes in, accompanied by hordes of men far from their families; of what happens when the old rules no longer apply but the new ones are yet to be determined.

About Gwen Florio

Gwen Florio is a veteran journalist who has covered stories ranging from the shootings at Columbine High School and the trial of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, to the glitz of the Miss America pageant and the more practical Miss Navajo contest. She has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, as well as Lost Springs, Wyoming (population three). She has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; her short fiction, for the Pushcart.

About Caroline Shaffer

Caroline Shaffer is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. A former company member at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for nineteen years, she received an MFA from the American Conservatory Theater.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Skip

Lola Wicks now works for a small Montana newspaper, and is living with the local sheriff, making it impossible for her to have the crime beat; however, when a local girl "from the rez" freezes to death to escape a menace, Lola decides she needs to investigate. Then she finds out there have been othe......more

Goodreads review by "Avonna

I did a Feature Blog review of Books #1 - #3 on my website [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Peg

I received a Preview Edition copy of this book, Dakota, by Gwen Florio, from another site in exchange for an honest review. On the back cover of this novel, it says "...Lola's story continues with Dakota." Since I had not read the author's first novel, Montana, I didn't know what to expect. Believe m......more

Goodreads review by Sheila

Reporter Lola Wicks has moved from big-city news and far-flung scenes of war to small-town America. Now she’s not even allowed to follow the crime beat since she’s sleeping with the sheriff, but she can’t switch off her concerns or her suspicions. Missing girls, explained away as runaways or acciden......more

Goodreads review by Erika

Being a native North Dakotan I was interested to read a story actually set in my often overlooked state. And like I often am with the few stories about North Dakota I come across, I was disappointed. If I hadn't been from here, I would probably rate this book a 3. It was obvious, though, that the au......more

Quotes

“A gripping read, sure to make readers restless for a third Lola Wicks mystery.” Booklist

“Florio succeeds with her second riveting Lola title…The hard-nosed feminine perspective is refreshing. For fans of Lori Armstrong and Craig Johnson.” Library Journal

“Florio’s second novel mines familiar ground with another look at American Indian culture along the frozen US-Canadian border territory, with a compelling mystery folded in to add spice to the mix…The writing is top-notch, and the action builds at just the right pace. In Florio’s capable hands, Lola Wicks is going to be around for a long, long time.” Kirkus Reviews

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