In a recent event by Stories on Stage Sacramento, I interviewed crime novelist, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, author of Winter Counts. Most crime novels are preoccupied with justice. But David is a lawyer. And his protagonist, Virgil Wounded Horse, is a professional vigilante living on a Lakota reservation. In Winter Counts, the stakes are higher, and the details more specific, than in many novels.

I asked him if he could talk a little about the federal Major Crimes Act and how it relates to Virgil’s work on tribal lands and David’s deeper preoccupation with justice. See his three minute answer below.

I think most writers in crime fiction have an origin story that drives them to fixate on this genre and its core theme of justice. David did not disappoint. See the whole performance and conversation, including the brilliant work of actor Elio Gutiérrez here.