The Purification Ceremony

Haunted by nightmares about her father's suicide and her mother's mysterious death, Diana Jackman joins a hunting party in the remote British Columbian wilderness, only to discover that she and her fellow hunters are being stalked by a killer. 300,000 first printing.

Hunters get hunted by a vengeful lunatic in this all-stops- out yarn of the world's worst hunting trip. James Metcalfe's thousand-square-mile spread on the border of Alberta and British Columbia is the best-stocked site for trophy deer hunting on the face of the earth. Now that Metcalfe's dead, his estate's been opened to hunting parties. The first party (each member has paid a fee of $7,000 for a week's hunt) includes three childhood buddies from Pennsylvania; a Nashville gun-store owner who hunts with bow and arrow; a Texas millionaire and his latest trophy wife; a knee-jerk liberal magazine writer planning an anti-hunting expos‚; and Diana Jackman (a.k.a. Little Crow), a partNative American software writer who's going back to the woods in a desperate attempt to silence the demons from her troubled past. Diana's had no peace since her long-estranged father died; his death revealed his existence to her shocked husband for the first time. Now her decision to splurge on the Metcalfe junket has put her marriage on the rocks. But the real danger lies ahead, with an implacable spirit who seems bent on destroying the inaugural party by stalking and murdering them. Does James Metcalfe walk again (if he ever really died), or is the killer his nasty son Ronny? Is the motive a simple hatred of hunting, or does the killer have something personal against this particular party? And how can Diana defeat an adversary who seems to have the finely-honed senses and killer instincts of a wolf? Deliverance meets And Then There Were None, with a cast out of Gilligan's Island. Sullivan (Hard News, 1995, etc.) handles the hunter-hunted scenario with a slickness seasoned with mingled aromas of peyote, animal musk, and testosterone. Shorn of the heavy-going mystical ruminations that are bound to be cut, the inevitable movie should be a first-rate actioner. (First printing of 300,000; $250,000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Diana Jackson, also known as Little Crow, is a deer hunter, trained in the Native American ways of tracking by her parents and great uncle. She is also a shaman, in tune with the spirits that inhabit the forest. After a series of tragic events, she denies her spirituality yet can't fully devote herself to a domestic life. Distraught and estranged from her family, she joins a commercial deer hunt on a vast estate in British Columbia. Soon she and the other hunters are stalked by a beastlike killer bent on destroying them all; Little Crow must become one with the creatures of the forest to save her companions, perhaps at the price of her own sanity. While the outcome of the story is predictable, Little Crow's voice?weary, pain-filled, and, finally, at peace?is compelling. In her, Sullivan (Hard News, Kensington, 1995) has created a unique character who should be heard from again. Recommended.?Laurel A. Wilson, Alexandrian P.L, Mount Vernon, Ind.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Software designer and crack markswoman Diana Jackman joins a hunting party in the wilds of British Columbia. Not only does her husband disapprove, but he files for divorce and takes custody of their children when she refuses to return the $7,000 withdrawn from their joint account for this 10-day pursuit of white-tailed deer. Her uncle Mitchell and her father taught her to shoot, track, and understand the woods in accordance with Micmac and Penobscot tribal traditions. Her mother, a former state senator, suffered from Alzheimer's, and Diana blames her premature death on her father. She leaves home and denies her heritage, but the hunting trip brings it all back. Long-suppressed memories of her childhood in Maine cloud Diana's mind. After two of the staff are killed, gutted, and scalped, and several members of the party are wounded by mysterious cedar arrows, the hunters realize they are being hunted themselves. False leads, exhausting chases in the snow, peyote-induced hallucinations, and a final reckoning with the past all contribute to this exciting novel of suspense. Jennifer Henderson