Synopses & Reviews
On a parched plain, encircled by a dry embrace of willow bones, the ritual begins. Here, there is searing heat, bleeding feet, unimaginable thirst This is the Sun Dance.
Author James D. Doss blends spinetingling mystery with Native American mysticism as no one else can. Through his expert and justifiably acclaimed storytelling abilities, two very different worlds come together: the modern world, where human greed, anger, and jealousies can drive mortal men and women to commit terrible crimes; and the spirit world of dreams and omens, and a Power older than civilization. The former is the realm of tribal policeman Charlie Moon and his sometime associate Granite Creek, Colorado, Police Chief Scott Parris. The latter is the province of Charlie's aunt Daisy Perika, Ute elder and shaman.
For the Ute of Southern Colorado, the annual Sun Dance is among the most solemn and sacred of rituals. But too often recently Death has been an uninvited guest at the hallowed ceremony. None of the deceased has sustained visible, life-ending injuries, so Charlie Moon is reluctant to call it murder. Yet he knows there was nothing "natural" about the unexplained deaths of young and strong dancers, like the blue-armed Shoshone, Joseph Sparrow.
Daisy Perika is also aware of the events unfolding around her, but unlike her skeptical policeman nephew, she trusts the rumors of sorcery that travel like smoke on the wind. For there is much the eyes cannot see and the hands cannot touch; and the spirits have sent her words and signs warning there is great evil in her midst. . .and that there are many more corpses to follow.
The return of a childhood friend--a beautiful Ute woman back from college to write a newspaper story revealing who, or what, is stealing men's lives--has raised the stakes in Charlie Moon's investigation. With those he cares for deeply suddenly in harm's way, perhaps he should heed his friend Parris's suggestion that he look beyond the rational for a
Synopsis
In the fourth richly atmospheric Shaman mystery by author James D. Doss -- the second to be published in hardcover by Avon Books -- participants in the grueling Native American ritual called the Sun Dance have been dying for no apparent reason. Ute shaman Daisy Perika is receiving warnings from the spirits that there is a great evil in her midst. But Daisy's nephew Charlie Moon -- the tribal policeman investigating the unexplained fatalities -- suspects there are more natural forces at work. The stakes rise considerably for Moon when a childhood friend decides to look into the bizarre incidents for a newspaper article. Suddenly people the dedicated Native American lawman cares for deeply are in harm's way.
About the Author
James D. Doss, recently retired from the technical staff of Los Alamos National Laboratory, now spends most of his time in a small cabin above Taos -- writing mystery fiction. He also travels to the fascinating locations where his stories take place, often camping in remote areas to absorb the impression of an Anasazi ruin, a deep canyon, an arid mesa, or a Sun Dance. His Shaman series includes The Shaman Sings, The Shaman Laughs, The Shaman's Bones, The Shaman's Game, The Night Visitor, and Grandmother Spider. The unusual plots are a mix of high technology and mysticism (Shaman Sings), bizarre animal mutilations (Shaman Laughs), theft of a sacred artifact (Shaman's Bones), an unprecedented form of murder and revenge at the Sun Dance (Shaman's Game), a most peculiar haunting followed by the discovery of an astonishing fossil (Night Visitor), and -- because a small girl has killed a spider without performing the prescribed ritual -- the appearance of a monstrous, murderous, eight-legged creature on the reservation (Grandmother Spider, of course!).