You Never Can Tell

You Never Can Tell (2002) is the second book in romance novelist Kathleen Eagle’s The Last Good Man series. Taking a tertiary character from the first novel, a Lakota Sioux man who suffers for his engaged activism on behalf of Native American people, Eagle expands his story, making him one of her two protagonists, a man whose retreat from the world is undone when he meets a journalist eager to tell his story and rehabilitate his good name.

Kole Kills Crow was once famous as much for his political activism on behalf of Native people as for his ruggedly photogenic good looks. He became the face of his cause, loved by the media because he could explain the injustices visited on his people while looking great on camera. But after a series of terrible events, Kole has disappeared from public life, so much so that no one has been able to find where this once charismatic leader has gone.

After Kole and his associates protested near a post office hostage as a way of getting attention, the South Dakota National Guard was called in to disperse the protesters. After they refused to comply, Kole was arrested and thrown in prison, convicted on the trumped up charge of kidnapping a hostage. Just before his prison sentence was due to finish, Kole was framed again, this time for the murder of a fellow Native American prisoner. Kole escaped from prison in the melee that ensued, taking his wife and daughter into hiding. Somehow their location was compromised, and in a horrible tragedy, his wife was killed when their house mysteriously exploded – an attack that had clearly been meant for Kole and not her.



Despite this tragic history, Manhattan reporter Heather Reardon has always regarded Kole as one of her personal heroes. She knows more about his story than anyone because Kole’s sister-in-law, supermodel Savannah (whose story made up the plot of The Last Good Man, the first book in Eagle’s series), is Heather’s best friend. Because Savannah has been raising Kole’s daughter while he has been in hiding, she has necessarily told Heather all about him.

Heather decides to find Kole to understand more about this man and to hear his story from his own lips. She tracks him down to a small bar in the Minnesota backwoods, where he has been making a living as a flute maker. Although she tells him about her track record of “writing stories that speak to the American social conscience” and her interest in his cause, Kole is hesitant to trust her, not least because he finds her incredibly attractive and doesn’t want to get emotionally involved.

She finally gets him to open up a little when she explains that she has already interviewed someone from Kole’s past: the actor Barry Wilson, Kole's former mentor, and the man who betrayed him when he allowed Kole to take the rap for the South Dakota incident. It’s clear that Heather is appalled by Barry’s behavior and just wants Kole to have a chance to tell the truth about what happened.



Kole has been living in an old cabin in the woods with his wolf-dog. Heather stays with him there, having long conversations about Native American rights and governmental wrongs. But they also share witty banter, clearly fighting back their strong attraction to each other. Eventually, they yield to their physical desires, and Kole finds himself getting back in touch with his other passions as well.

After old activist friends reach out, Kole and Heather embark on a cross-country trek, visiting every reservation they can in order to gather supporters and eventually make their way to Hollywood, where they will hold a Native American rights march, protesting the bias of the movie industry and urging filmmakers to provide a more accurate picture of American Indians. At the same time, Heather wants to clear Kole’s name, finding the real murderer of the prisoner so that he is no longer under suspicion.

Kole evades the law by using the alias “Kola” as his last name. Along the way, he and Heather uncover a conspiracy by a nuclear waste company which has been funding movies to make the complaints of Native people about the placement of nuclear dump sites seem petty and unreasonable. As they discover the company’s involvement in not only filmmaking, but also murder, Kole is forced to take a surprisingly violent stand to protect Heather from danger. However, at long last, Kole is cleared of any wrongdoing and the charges against him are dropped.



After a successful march which draws the eyes of the country and the pens of the media to the plight of underrepresentation, Kole and Heather are free to think about their future. The novel ends as they discuss having more kids to give Kole’s daughter siblings.