Mask of the Deer Woman is contemporary fiction, set during what the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs refers to as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis. Author Laurie Dove and the Library’s Anne Kniggendorf discuss Dove’s book and the high rate of assaults, abductions, and murders of tribal members, particularly women like those in her book.

In the novel, after her daughter is murdered, a former Chicago detective takes a job as the tribal marshal on the fictional Oklahoma reservation where her father grew up. Her first order of business is to investigate the disappearance of a local college student, a young woman.

As the narrative progresses, protagonist Carrie Starr senses that something is watching and following her. She realizes it’s the fabled Deer Woman, but she is uncertain if this spirit is there to guide her or to punish her.

Dove lives in Valley Center, Kansas, just north of Wichita. Mask of the Deer Woman is her debut novel and the first in a trilogy in progress; the second installment is scheduled for release in spring 2026.