SOURCE: Bolton-Fasman, Judith. “One Author's Effort at Myth Killing.” Christian Science Monitor (6 January 1997): 13.

In the following review, Bolton-Fasman praises Indian Killer for Alexie's skillful character development and his blunt treatment of racism in America.

Sherman Alexie is a native American who discounts that designation as a “guilty white liberal term”; he prefers to be called Indian. Indian Killer is his second novel and it is the literary thriller at its best.

Alexie transforms the genre into a sharp, multilayered format that enables him to engage his readers on a number of levels. It's a terrifically readable whodunit with a fascinating group of suspects. It's also a complex history lesson that is eloquently expressed in fantasy, myth, and fact.

The plot centers on the random murders of white men in Seattle; all of the physical evidence points to a killer of Indian heritage. But the trouble really begins years...