Cherokee Ice — John T. Biggs

Best Fiction Book, 2016, Awarded by the Oklahoma Writers Federation Inc.
Everyone on the Navajo reservation thinks Danny Riley is a witch. Nothing to it, of course -- just because his enemies have a way of catching on fire or getting stranded in the desert. He knows all that talk of magic is nothing more than tricks and superstitious nonsense. But since he left the rez to avoid being murdered, Danny's beginning to wonder if people are right about him. In the city, he meets the girl of his dreams -- but for some strange reason, she believes he is her husband. A stranger with tattoos on his face passes him a fat envelope filled with money. A homicidal dwarf is trying to kill him over something called Cherokee Ice -- and it looks like he might do it. The little man points a pistol at him and says, "Silver bullets. You won't rise up this time." Danny's mystified, but it's clear there's no way out. Nothing left but to fall back on his Indian ways and pray he really does possess some powerful magic.