Kindness Goes Unpunished
But why Kindness Goes Unpunished? I chose this mystery for many reasons. Henry Standing Bear, one of the main characters in this story, is a Cheyenne Indian. This fact will give my students an opportunity to delve into another culture, one which has some recognition factor as one of the horseback-riding Plains Indian tribes in the 19th century. The setting for this mystery is Philadelphia, Pa., the hometown of my students. Its appeal-factor thereby rises because the action takes place on familiar ground. My students will be able to trace the development of the plot across the city. In addition, the relationship between Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear is an entertaining one, laced with friendly banter and much humor.
Walt Longmire and his partner and friend, Cheyenne Indian Henry Standing Bear are traveling to Philadelphia to visit Walt's daughter, while Henry Standing Bear installs an exhibit of photographs at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. Walt's daughter, Cady, wants him to meet her boyfriend, Devon Conliffe. While Walt is waiting for Cady to finish work as a lawyer in a big city law firm, word comes to him that Cady has been taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in a coma. Her boyfriend is suspected of having done this to Cady. Walt and Henry Standing Bear, who is busy arranging his exhibit of photographs, become caught up in a concatenation of events involving Devon Conliffe (who dies after being thrown off the Benjamin Franklin Bridge), drug dealers, police, a mysterious ally named William White Eyes, the Moretti family whose daughter is Walt's deputy in Absaroka County, Wyoming and has come East to console and support Walt. She becomes Walt's love interest. As the story unfolds and Walt pursues the criminals, a mysterious person leaves cryptic messages where Walt can find them. These messages direct him to go to sculptures throughout the city for further information. The mysterious person comes out of the shadows and Walt realizes this person needs saving in order for justice to be served. The climax occurs on horseback (intentionally ironic on the writer's part: Walt is, after all, from the Wild West) in Wissahickon Park (on a gravel road called Forbidden Drive - because cars are forbidden to drive on it), where order is restored. Cady comes out of her coma with the help of Henry Standing Bear, who heads for home in Lola - his Thunderbird (also the name of an important Plains Indian mythological figure) - and Walt will take Cady back home to Wyoming where she can heal. This truncated version of the novel of course is like a dinner from which all the taste and flavor has been removed, but the gist is still there.
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