Synopses & Reviews
With their bestselling First North Americans series, the Gears have astounded an avid international audience of millions. Now these master storytellers turn to the American Southwest, to one of the most enigmatic people to ever inhabit this continent—the Anasazi. At its pinnacle in A.D. 1150, their empire was vast and sophisticated, unequalled until the arrival of the Europeans—and then they simply disappeared.
Dr. Maureen Cole, one of the world's foremost physical anthropologists, is called in to examine and evaluate a mass grave discovered in New Mexico. The burial site contains nothing but the shatttered skulls of women and children. As Dr. Cole works to unravel the mystery of these deaths, strange things begin to happen around her. The walls of her laboratory crumble, her generator quits, and she begins to hear whispering voices emanating from the plastic bags of bones....
Available for the first time in a trade paperback edition, The Visitant is the first book in the Anasazi Mysteries series, which marked the beginning of an exciting new direction for the Gears—one sure to appeal to the Gearss large and dedicated following as well as fans of Tony Hillermans Native American mysteries.
Review
“A fun, fascinating tale.” —The Colorado Springs Gazette on The Visitant
“Breathtaking descriptions evoke the harsh beauty of the desert, while the lucid, erudite historical perspectives are informed by the authors own extensive archaeological experience.” —Publishers Weekly on The Visitant
Synopsis
At the Dawn of the Age of the Katsinas...
A woman runs away in search of a Spirit Helper and never returns...
An ancient village is swept into a shattering crime beyond reason, beyond belief...
An old man must learn to walk the dark labyrinth of a murderer's mind to find him before he can strike again...
A young war chief must enter the mesmerizing word of the insane if he is to save everything and everyone he loves...
And, a scant moment ahead in geologic time, world-renowned Canadian physical anthropologist Dr. Maureen Cole finds herself excavating a mass grave in New Mexico filled with the brutalized bodies of women and children.
From the internationally bestselling authors of People of the Nightland comes a novel of terrifying power about madness and murder eight hundred years ago.
About the Author
Kathleen O'Neal Gear is a former state historian and archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She has twice received the federal government's Special Achievement Award for ""outstanding management"" of our nation's cultural heritage. W. Michael Gear holds a master's degree in archaeology and has worked as a professional archaeologist since 1978. He is principal investigator for Wind River Archaeological Consultants. Together they have written the North Americas Forgotten Past series (People of the Longhouse, The Dawn Country, People of the Mist, People of the Wolf, among others); and the Anasazi Mysteries series. The Gears live in Thermopolis, WY.