Synopses & Reviews
"I had to become a bird to become a man," Grandfather Two-loons told the boy. The boy grew up into a latter-day minstrel, wandering the highways with his dog, Medusa. He's lost his way. He's lost his knack for carrying a tune. He's thrust into the Olympic Mountain wilderness without a clue how to survive. He's got a dragon on his tail, a cougar at his throat, and a murder on his hands. His one saving grace is he's got avian pluck in his heart. With spiritual guidance, he might be able to solve the mystery, save the Indian Princess, and find a homeplace.
Review
"Mitch Luckett writes with rare humanity and a quirky, disheveled grace. This is a marvelous, quixotic, funny book. There is no hero's story I would rather read." Geri Doran, recipient of a 2001 Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, Stanford University
Review
"Loon reads like a cross between Carl Hiaasen and Edward Abbey. Mitch Luckett has invented crazy but convincing characters, both human and animal, in a magically realistic whodunit. I loved it, especially for its subtle message that without a connection with the natural world, humans are destined to wander about the earth with no real spiritual grounding. I've always wanted to come back as a raven. Now, I'm not so sure." Mike Houck, Urban Naturalist and co-editor of Wild in the City
Review
"Loon asks, what if you accidentally shape-changed into your spirit animal and it was not a noble predator but a low-on-the-food-chain prey? Add a human whodunit to the mix and you get an offbeat, juicy stew. Loon is that rarest of literary birds: a funny book with a vital message." M. K. Wren, Oregon author
Review
"Anyone with a taste for bizarre fiction will find plenty to feast on in these pages." Portland Tribune
About the Author
Mitch Luckett is an avid birder and claims to at least partially understand the "language of the birds." When challenged on this claim, he will frequently go into a high-pitched yodel that will float your eyeballs.
Mitch has been a freelance writer for twenty-five years with dozens of articles and several short stories published in regional magazines and newspapers. For over a decade he's written a monthly Naturalist column for the Audubon Society of Portland. Two naturalist pieces are in the anthology and guidebook to Portland, Oregon's natural areas, Wild in the City. Also a bluegrass and old-time musician, Mitch combines two art forms, music and storytelling, into humorous and sometimes poignant stage performances.
Whether Ozark Mountain tall tales, narrative songs, Olympic Mountain parables, Native American myths, or a book-length yarn, Mitch has a gift for the ancient art of storytelling. To Kill a Common Loon is his first novel.