[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/indiankiller.JPG]]

''Indian Killer'' is a novel by Creator/ShermanAlexie.

A serial killer terrorizes Seattle, hunting and scalping white men. The crimes of the so-called 'Indian Killer' triggers a wave of violence and racial hatred against the city’s Native American population.

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!!In this work, we see examples of:

* AlternateUniverse: It tends to be of the kind in the ending to ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', a fantasy created by the protagonist.
* AmbiguousSyntax: The title, ''Indian Killer'', could be someone who kills Indians or an Indian who is a killer.
* AnachronismStew: Who the hell said Native American in TheSeventies?
%%zce* Animal Motifs: The owl.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: It's implied Father Duncan does this.
* BlatantLies: There's a whole chapter late in the book consisting of Truck spouting one after the other.
%%zce* Blind Seer: One of the homeless Indians.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Compare this to any other Sherman Alexie work.
* DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu: John and Marie are quite friendly.
* {{Expy}}: Reggie's father might be based on real-life South Dakota politician Bill Janklow, who is infamous in Indian country.
* FourIsDeath: You can make a fun drinking game out of the number of times four is mentioned.
* GainaxEnding: "Had the Ghost Dance worked, you'd be dust." And of course the novel itself has one. [[spoiler:To understand, John dies, but the killer, who until now has been implied to be John, is still on the loose. The easiest solution is that Reggie was the actual killer.]]
%%zce* Go MadFrom The Revelation: John concludes Father Duncan did this.
%%zce* A God Am I: Played for laughs.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Where to begin? Marie assumes David is hitting on her out of some ethnic fetishism and is therefore a racist... because he's white. John wants to kill a white man as revenge for all the Indians who were killed. Mather thinks he's fighting racism, while being racist in his own way. Reggie wants revenge on his abusive father by killing white men. Aaron wants to avenge his brother by killing Indians.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:The people who killed David did it over casino money, and then are killed over an illegal poker game.]]
* {{Leitmotif}}: An odd example of a literary one. John's leitmotif is the sound of sandals walking on sand.
%%zce* Mark Of Shame: Near the end.
* MisterSeahorse: John thought he was pregnant once.
* MoodWhiplash: Alexie calls the book "a feel-good novel about interracial murder".
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Truck starts talking about eugenics near the end of the book. He goes farther than Jensen's recommendation to pay people $100 for every IQ point below 100 in exchange for voluntary sterilization toward ''forced'' sterilization.
* OccidentalOtaku: Done American-style. (Called "Twinkie" or "wannabe" colloquially.) Many, many well-intentioned white characters have a fascination with Indians.
* ProudWarriorRace: When it's discussed as to what tribes drink which sodas, a Coeur d'Alene corrects the lecturer and says they just drink blood.
* PsychoRangers: Though neither Reggie's gang nor Aaron's is really "good", they both commit hate crimes against the other ethnic group, they're both in groups of three, and they both ultimately have one guy say WhatHaveIBecome and tell the police.
* RaceFetish:
** {{Inverted|Trope}} After he finds out that his girlfriend hates Indians, Reggie has angry sex with her for a week, for the sole purpose of the cosmic irony of her bearing an Indian child.
** Conversely John, upon finding a white man watching Asian porn, is disgusted by it.
%%* SoapboxSadie: Marie.
* SociopathicHero: The killer at times. Many of his targets are people presented as scum, often racist. And not just racist against Indians; one watches Asian porn.
* StartOfDarkness: The first few chapters are dedicated to this.
* TakeThat: Much of the book is such, but especially the Native American literature class. Truck Schultz is also a TakeThat to conservative talk show hosts, especially since Truck only says such things for ratings.
%%* ThoseTwoGuys: Paul and Paul Too.
* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler:John is the killer.]]
%%* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt
* WomenAreWiser: Boo assumes Marie couldn't be the killer because she's a woman.
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