The Round House, the most recent novel from author Louise Erdrich, is set in 1988 on a fictitious Native American reservation in North Dakota. It is 22 years before the Tribal Law and Order Act will be passed.

So, when the narrator, 13 at the time of the story, learns his mother is brutally raped, he discovers jurisdiction issues will prevent the perpetrator from ever facing prosecution.

So Joe, with help from his friends, sets out to solve the crime and find his own way to bring the rapist to justice.

Joe’s father is a tribal judge, and in the present day as Joe looks back on the story, he is a prosecutor. He is able to give the reader a few lessons on the convoluted laws that deal with Native Americans, starting with the federal government’s definition of an “Indian.”