If you haven't read a book with a horse sex scene before, Theresa Kishkan's Sisters of Grass (Goose Lane) is one place to start. The story reconstructs the life of Margaret Stuart, a young woman living in the Nicola Valley of B.C. at the turn of the nineteenth century, who is an expert ranch hand and who falls in love with a visiting American anthropology student. The story introduces us to the train robber Bill Miner, traditional Native Thompson menstruation rites, the preparation of museum artifacts and, of course, horse breeding. The reconstruction is imagined by Anna, an employee at a small B.C. museum, who is cataloguing a box of Margaret's belongings. Anna is haunted by the way a person's presence lingers in the landscape and in her personal effects. The archival impetus and historical details of Kishkan's first full-length fiction are appealing, but while she can write beautifully about objects and places, she has difficulty with her characters' voices. Dialogue is stilted and the wording of private thoughts is often awkward. The climax of the story comes too soon, making the last chapter and a half a let-down. Sisters of Grass has good elements but too many of them, and Kishkan seems unable to create a satisfying whole.