The Night Visitor:: A Shaman Mystery (Shaman Mysteries) - Hardcover

Doss, James D

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380977214 ISBN 13: 9780380977215

Publisher: William Morrow, 1999

Synopsis

The morning after the aged Ute shaman receives a perplexing visits from a silent, disheveled matukach "magician," daisy's neighbor Nathan McFain discovers something astonishing buried in the dirt on his foundering Colorado dude ranch: the bones of gargantuan beast from a prehistoric age. It is a find of enormous scientific importance that attracts the attention of a wide variety of individual: noted paleontologist Moses Silver and his archaeologist daughter Delia; pillars of the scientific community Robert Newton and Cordell York; an Arkansas sharpie named Flye, an overly interested local antiques dealer.. and Charlie Moon of the Southern Ute Police Department. At the McFain spread primarily to keep an eye on the disreputable Flye, Moon is curious about the strange old bones ....and wary as well. For things this ancient and rare have been known to inspire evil deeds in the past, including avarice, mendacity, and murder. And when one of the prime players in this timeless drama vanishes without a trace, Charlie worries that his greatest fears have been realized. But while Charlie investigates the unexplained disappearance --and a very suspicious death that follows soon after--using rational and accepted police methods, his aunt Daisy is being drawn by forces preternatural into a grimly related mystery. For craven murder is not the exclusive domain of contemporary Man--and a cry for justice from the past has reached Daisy Perika and tow extraordinary young girls in her care, ensnaring them all in something old, dark, and dangerous.

About this title

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!).

From Publishers Weekly:

An old lady shaman, four backbiting paleontologists, a con man, two orphans, two cops and a ghost: from this grab bag of real and unreal Americans, Doss conjures up his fifth Shaman mystery, a quirky, satisfying follow-up to last year's The Shaman's Game. This time, Ute tribal cop Charlie Moon is asked to keep an eye on Horace Flye, an Arkansas rapscallion straight out of Mark Twain. Horace inexplicably has found employment with a team of paleontologists digging up Nathan McFain's ranch. Rumor has it that Nathan himself discovered a mammoth tusk with butcher marksApossible evidence of a human kill site dating back 31,000 years. Just as the feuding scientists consider publicizing their remarkable find, Horace disappears, leaving behind a bratty six-year-old daughter named Butter Flye. Moon brings Butter to his aunt Daisy Perika, an elderly shaman who has other worries, chiefly a mute, mud-caked, blue-eyed spirit holding an egg who has been loitering around her trailer in the dead of night. Once again, Doss dazzles with his trademark blend of Native-American folklore, science, satire and suspense. Sometimes there's too much of a good thing: vivid but extraneous minor characters muck up the action, and an extended subplot involving series regular Police Chief Scott Parris and his journalist girlfriend seems tacked on for old time's sake. But wry Officer Moon and irascible Daisy continue to charm as the series' lead characters. The dialogue crackles, and the Southern Colorado atmosphere astonishes, especially at night. Author tour. (Sept.) FYI: The Shaman's Game will be published in mass market paperback in August.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0380977214
• ISBN 13: 9780380977215
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400