The Hatak Witches

By Devon A. Mihesuah
University of Arizona Press (2021)
312 pages

Review by Zoe Redwoman

Detective Monique Blue Hawk is called in to investigate the local children’s museum, where one security guard has been found bloodied and clinging to life and another remains missing. Arriving at the museum, Blue Hawk and her partner, Detective Chris Pierson, discover the missing security guard has been murdered and left shredded inside the cavernous Room of Secrets. The museum is marked with evidence of the assault, but little else. Nothing yields a sign of the perpetrator or even the presence of one. It is only after a thorough investigation that takes them through the ranks of the museum and the cavernous room, that Blue Hawk discovers there is more to this crime than the assault alone—a single skull has been removed from the dusty and rarely used Room of Secrets. Now Blue Hawk must uncover why and how someone got into the Room of Secrets and was able to get back out, past the bloodied guard, without leaving a single footprint, fingerprint, or trace of evidence behind. Blue Hawk begins to suspect that there is something more to this case, something that can’t be explained without looking into the supernatural world.

Devon A. Mihesuah is a professor of international cultural understanding at the University of Kansas and a prolific writer with success in both fiction and nonfiction. Much of Mihesuah’s written works focus heavily on decolonization, Indigenous history, and the empowerment of Indigenous peoples. Although The Hatak Witches is a work of fiction, Mihesuah’s extensive knowledge of Choctaw history and cosmology and Indigenous history and politics shines through this most recent work in the near-encyclopedic knowledge of Detective Monique Blue Hawk.

Throughout The Hatak Witches, Mihesuah captivates readers with her incomparable attention to detail in the description of the natural—and unnatural—world. The narrative shifts perspective seamlessly between human and non-human characters, all the while steadied by the verdant world around them. Mihesuah’s attention to the smallest detail of the natural world allows readers to feel the beauty or the gloom of the Oklahoma landscape. The real mystery of The Hatak Witches lies in the heart of the hollow, a deep, wet tangle of forest located on Chalakwa Ranch, where Blue Hawk and her peers must face-off against a coven of shapeshifting witches who call the tangled darkness of the hollow their home. Once Blue Hawk enters the hollow, readers feel the sticky closeness of the forest, breathe the thick air, and are immersed themselves in a space that sends armed men running for the light.

Steeped in Choctaw cosmology and the rich landscape of Southern Oklahoma, The Hatak Witches offers a chilling tale sure to keep readers turning the page.

Zoe Redwoman teaches composition, literature, communication, and human development courses at Northwest Indian College.