Scalped Deluxe Ed. Book Five

The last book in the Scalped series is quite satisfying as an ending but at the same time I still had some problems with it.  The opening issue is a great reflection on how far the series has come since it was first started.  Bad Horse & Falls Down are looking for Catcher since he killed Gina & tried to kill both of them.  Meanwhile in the wake of Medicine Rock's heart attack Red Crow has been tearing down his own meth houses.  Wooster Karnow has wised up as a law man & is taking matters into his own hands.  All of these changes seem very organic in the way they are executed in this final book.  

The teaser at the end of the last volume doesn't lead anywhere since Belcourt doesn't wake up next to Catcher in the hospital but instead Catcher winds up in jail with Wade.  During a fire fight in which some meth dealers in Nebraska were trying to kill Shunka.  Wade gets hit with a stray bullet & as he is dying Catcher admits to killing Gina which leads to Wade & Catcher choking each other.  I really wish Catcher had died here but it was not to be.  Sheriff Karnow takes on a meth house by him self after all of his back up deserts him.  Nitz finally arrives but it to late Karnow after being shot multiple times tries to reason with one the criminals wearing a gas mask but get shot anyway.  As the gangs runs away it is revealed that the guy with the gas mask is Dino who the sheriff let off with a warning earlier in this collection.  Shunka & Bad Horse have their showdown that has been teased since the very beginning and it is great but it still proves that Shunka would have one if it hadn't been for the most unlikely person.  Red Crow shoots Shunka at which Dashiell turns the situation around & puts Red Crow under arrest  Meanwhile Catcher makes it to a field where he comes upon his old horse.  Upon recognizing him the horse attacks him & while about to stomp a mud hole in him Catcher shoots the horse & it collapses on him.  If the series had ended here it would have been fine but no this is only the halfway point of the story.  

Red Crow is in jail Nitz is happy as hell & Bad Horse is viewed as a hero Dashiell starts up a relationship with Maggie Medicine Rock who seems to be a good fit for him but I was really rooting for him & Carol since they have so much shared history.  Dino manipulates things behind the scenes with Red Crow's lawyer which leads to Lincoln being released & Dashiells reputation in ruins.  Dash is on the run from the F.B.I. while someone is killing the tribal council.  Diesel's body turns back up putting further evidence against Dash.  The final fight is in the closed casino between Dino's gang of former Red Crow employees & Red Crow.  It turns out that Catcher is still alive & that he is behind the tribal council murders.  Nitz finds out that Catcher is really the one who murdered the F.B.I. agents back in 1975.  So everybody is converging on the casino.  Dino flees with a lot of money making his full criminal transformation.  There is a whole Mexican standoff thing that happens between Red Crow, Bad Horse & Catcher.  Bad Horse shoots both, while Catcher is stumbling away Nitz runs in & tackles him into the fire where they both burn.  Dash carries Red Crow outside.  Red Crow makes him an offer but Dash refuses.  By the end of the story Falls Down is made sheriff of the reservation Maggie is elected leader of the the tribal council.  Carol has officially replace Granny Poor Bear as we witness Granny's funeral.  There is a new drug kingpin on the reservation in Dino.  Red Crow is living secluded outside of town just trying to get back to his roots & Dash is hitching a ride out of the reservation because he is still wanted for the murder of Diesel.  This is not a happy ending book but it does have definite closure.  If you liked 100 Bullets or Y the Last Man you will love this I haven't read D.M.Z. yet but I have a feeling it is in the same vein as these other titles.