Wisdom Corner

I can’t believe it’s already been five years since I read David Heska Wanbli Weiden‘s debut novel, Winter Counts. Time has flown by, and at long last, the author is back with a sequel: Wisdom Corner. We return to South Dakota’s Rosebud Indian Reservation and our favorite vigilante, Virgil Wounded Horse. It’s been a year since Virgil gave up his vigilanteism and violence, but after trying to defend a friend against a gang, he falls back into his old ways. While Virgil is trying to fend off gang scare tactics, he’s also looking into who murdered a respected member of his community, helping his girlfriend in her local political ambitions, and trying to find the lost burial site of his late aunt. How could these events be related, and what will Virgil’s role in seeking justice ultimately be?

What I Liked:

• Criminal justice on Indigenous reservations. As in the previous book, in Wisdom Corner, Virgil has taken to meting out punishment to criminals who deserve it. After all, their local police doesn’t have much authority, and the FBI can’t be bothered most of the time, either. If no one else will go after the bad guys, why not Virgil? This book speaks to the larger issue of criminal justice among Indigenous peoples, including the racist treatment they often receive, and urges for reform that can make reservations safe and just for all.
• Native American politics. Much of this book discusses politics in some way. First there’s Virgil’s girlfriend Marie, who is running for local council and hoping to enact positive change for her people. It’s a heated race against a shady man, Mitch, who is running on a questionable platform. There is also valuable discussion about past wrongs to Native Americans, in terms of political representation and land ownership, as well as the horrific practice of forcibly placing Indigenous children into boarding schools. Reparations and modern reform are a place to start, both at a local and national level.
• Vengeance and violence. Virgil has quit smoking, drinking, and getting into fights… and it might be the latter that’s the hardest for him to stay away from now. His sense of justice and revenge are strong, but it’s often at odds with his desire to be peaceful. He doesn’t mean to fall into his old, violent ways, but sometimes the violence comes to him and he feels like he has no choice.
• Spiritual element. One of my favorite aspects of Wisdom Corner is the depiction of ghostly figures. More than once, Virgil is severely wounded and starts to have visions of murdered Lakota men. These spirits offer advice, but whether Virgil is actually seeing these supernatural beings or simply hallucinating is open to interpretation.

Audiobook:

Shane Ghostkeeper narrates Wisdom Corner, told almost entirely from Virgil’s point of view. I enjoyed how he captures Virgil’s character, as well as the South Dakota accent and pronunciation of Indigenous words. It felt like I was inhabiting Virgil’s world for the duration of this audiobook.

Final Thoughts

Wisdom Corner is a smart and thoughtful novel that combines a slow-building mystery with commentary on family, politics, and doing right. It’s gritty and candid, but it’s full of heart, too. I’ll be looking out for more books from David Heska Wanbli Weiden.

Special thanks to Ecco, HarperAudio Adult, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Wisdom Corner here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

Wisdom Corner by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Series	Virgil Wounded Horse (#2)
Audiobook Narrator	Shane Ghostkeeper
Audience	Adult
Genre	Thriller; Mystery
Setting	South Dakota
Number of Pages	320
Format I Read	Audiobook & Ebook (NetGalley ARCs)
Original Publication Date	July 7, 2026
Publisher	Ecco

Official Summary

From the award-winning author of Winter Counts comes a new thriller about life—and death—on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.

Virgil Wounded Horse is desperately trying to escape his past as a hired vigilante on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. But when a legendary figure from the reservation is murdered, Virgil is forced to return to the job. Making matters more complicated, threats are coming from the Pine Ridge 705—a street gang from a neighboring reservation who want to expand their reach into Rosebud—and Mitch Gagnon, a shady politician who will stop at nothing to gain more power.

With a heated tribal council election looming, as well as new revelations regarding past injustices at the local Native boarding school, the stakes grow even higher. Will Virgil find the justice he’s seeking before it’s too late?

David Heska Wanbli Weiden, whose writing “melds the gritty realism of Dashiell Hammett with the lyricism of Tommy Orange” (O, The Oprah Magazine), once again brings us a tour de force of crime fiction—and an expansive look at Native American life in a shifting world.