From Publishers Weekly
The unearthing of what seems to be the 14,000-year-old skeleton of a male Caucasian from an Oregon riverbank raises important cultural issues in Mitchell's latest book (after 2000's Spirit Sickness) about Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator Emmett Parker and FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed, who are both part-Native American. Not only does the discovery go against most theories of when Caucasians arrived in the area, it also looks as though Native Americans ate the victim. Add to this the disruptive presence of a beautiful young woman seeking to have the bones classified under a political hot potato called the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and you have enough story for any book. But Mitchell also spends a lot of time on another vital issue: Will Parker and Turnipseed ever have sex? The attraction is certainly there, but Anna's history as an abused child has put up such a serious barrier that she and Emmett have consulted a sex therapist, who advises sneaking up on the problem with a series of games. So, while the discoverer of the skeleton is being gutted, the beautiful Native American woman is being kidnapped and the feds' Explorer is being blown up in a hotel parking lot, Parker and Turnipseed grope in public and swim naked in an attempt to follow the therapist's advice. The trouble is, every time they get close to a magic moment, something terrible intervenes. After a while, that pattern does tend to cool off most of the heat of Mitchell's otherwise involving, learned narrative. (May 8) Forecast: The April release of Spirit Sickness in paperback, which includes a preview chapter from this title, and the continued popularity of Native American mysteries bode well for sales. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Comanche Bureau of Indian Affairs Agent Emmet Parker and Anna Turnipseed of the FBI return in this installment (after Spirit Sickness), which finds them seeking the services of a marriage counselor to sort through Anna's abusive past. All attempts at intimacy must be postponed as the two officiate at the examination of a 14,000-year-old Oregon skeleton called "John Day Man." The remains are clearly Caucasian, setting up uncomfortable dynamics as law enforcement officials, tribal representatives, and cantankerous, oddball anthropologist Thaddeus Rankin jockey for authority. When attractive tribal representative Elsa Dease goes missing, Anna and Emmet don't lack for unsavory suspects, including Basque shepherd and fossil hunter Gorka Bibao, elusive Paiute rodeo loser Tennyson Paulina, and a group of pagans calling themselves the Norse Folk Congress. As the murder tally rises, suspects and law enforcement alike are caught in the butchering killer's web. For larger public libraries and libraries in the Pacific Northwest. Susan A. Zappia, Paradise Valley Community Coll., Phoenix Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
This third thriller starring BIA investigator Emmett Parker, a Comanche, and FBI special agent Anna Turnipseed, a Modoc, finds the pair in central Oregon, where human remains believed to be 14,000 years old have been found by an illegal fossil hunter. As they attempt to calm feuding factions squabbling over what the bones mean and who has jurisdiction over them, Parker and Turnipseed must also face a crisis in their own developing but troubled personal relationship. As in previous episodes, Mitchell uses Native American themes expertly, this time providing fascinating background on the conflict between archaeological study and Indian beliefs regarding the sanctity of ancestral burial grounds. As the conflict turns violent and a killer trains his sights on Turnipseed, the action thunders toward an almost surrealistically bloody finale. Mitchell's trademark combination of sensitive exploration of Native American subject matter with occasional bursts of Chainsaw Massacre-like violence--even more apparent here than before--will alienate some Hillerman fans, but others won't be able to resist the pulse-pounding action. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"Tony Hillerman, watch your back.... Mitchell knows his turf and delivers a savory whodunit without remorse."
-- People


Praise for Kirk Mitchell's Spirit Sickness:

"A high-octane thriller in the Thomas Harris mold."
-- Booklist

"Darker, grittier, and more satisfying than Hillerman's work ... Spirit Sickness reads fast, runs true and keeps you guessing."
-- Weekly Alibi, Albuquerque

"Intriguing ... Mitchell makes the most of Navajo mythology and the landscape of the Southwest."
-- Chicago Tribune

"A tough, hard-hitting story ... a winner."
-- I Love a Mystery

"Fans of Tony Hillerman and the Thurlos will want to read Spirit Sickness, a thriller that captures the identity of the Navajo Nation. Kirk Mitchell is a talented storyteller."
-- The Midwest Book Review

Cry Dance

"If Mr. Mitchell was as good a policeman as he is a writer, there must not have been a criminal standing when he retired."
-- The Washington Times

"Plenty of strenuous treks through rugged terrain.... What a great guy to keep around."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"Nail-bitingly intense ... A breathless page-turner ... with memorable Native American myths and an outdoorsman's respect for the Southwest's brutal beauty."
-- Kirkus Reviews

"A taut thriller ... Parker and Turnipseed make a memorable literary pair."
-- Publishers Weekly


Review
"Tony Hillerman, watch your back.... Mitchell knows his turf and delivers a savory whodunit without remorse."
-- People


Praise for Kirk Mitchell's Spirit Sickness:

"A high-octane thriller in the Thomas Harris mold."
-- Booklist

"Darker, grittier, and more satisfying than Hillerman's work ... Spirit Sickness reads fast, runs true and keeps you guessing."
-- Weekly Alibi, Albuquerque

"Intriguing ... Mitchell makes the most of Navajo mythology and the landscape of the Southwest."
-- Chicago Tribune

"A tough, hard-hitting story ... a winner."
-- I Love a Mystery

"Fans of Tony Hillerman and the Thurlos will want to read Spirit Sickness, a thriller that captures the identity of the Navajo Nation. Kirk Mitchell is a talented storyteller."
-- The Midwest Book Review

Cry Dance

"If Mr. Mitchell was as good a policeman as he is a writer, there must not have been a criminal standing when he retired."
-- The Washington Times

"Plenty of strenuous treks through rugged terrain.... What a great guy to keep around."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"Nail-bitingly intense ... A breathless page-turner ... with memorable Native American myths and an outdoorsman's respect for the Southwest's brutal beauty."
-- Kirkus Reviews

"A taut thriller ... Parker and Turnipseed make a memorable literary pair."
-- Publishers Weekly

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Though there are signs of foul play, Emmett Quanah Parker and Anna Turnipseed aren't looking for a killer - the remains dug out of a riverbank by an illegal fossil hunter are 14,000 years old. Parker and Turnipseed are sent to central Oregon as official witnesses to the examination of John Day Man, as he is dubbed, for the bones have quickly provoked a controversy that threatens to erupt into violence: the skeleton is not Native American but distinctly Caucasian, shattering long-held tenets concerning who the first inhabitants of this continent were." "Emmett, with his Comanche and white ancestry, and Anna, a reservation-born Modoc with Asian blood, share a sensitivity to both parties' concerns - and a forbidden attraction that's causing them professional and personal problems. They've broken the unwritten law that partners should never get emotionally involved. Having crossed that line, Emmett and Anna are too distracted by each other to see the escalating suspicion and fear around them when a young tribal anthropologist is swallowed by the misty night and within hours of her disappearance the fossil hunter who discovered the skeleton is found disemboweled." "The Warm Springs Indians insist that the unburied bones of the Ancient One have been turned into a skep, a murderous spirit that haunts the darkness. As winter closes in on the steppes of the Columbia Plateau, accusations of ritualized murder fly between the Indian and white communities - and the fight turns deadly when a second skeleton is unearthed." "In the midst of the turmoil, Emmett and Anna are paralyzed by their own demons. This estrangement could prove deadly if they stop watching each other's back long enough for a killer to target them too. And at the center of it all are the Ancient Ones, exacting a terrible price as the dark path to resolution runs a gauntlet through the boneyards of prehistory."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The unearthing of what seems to be the 14,000-year-old skeleton of a male Caucasian from an Oregon riverbank raises important cultural issues in Mitchell's latest book (after 2000's Spirit Sickness) about Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator Emmett Parker and FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed, who are both part-Native American. Not only does the discovery go against most theories of when Caucasians arrived in the area, it also looks as though Native Americans ate the victim. Add to this the disruptive presence of a beautiful young woman seeking to have the bones classified under a political hot potato called the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and you have enough story for any book. But Mitchell also spends a lot of time on another vital issue: Will Parker and Turnipseed ever have sex? The attraction is certainly there, but Anna's history as an abused child has put up such a serious barrier that she and Emmett have consulted a sex therapist, who advises sneaking up on the problem with a series of games. So, while the discoverer of the skeleton is being gutted, the beautiful Native American woman is being kidnapped and the feds' Explorer is being blown up in a hotel parking lot, Parker and Turnipseed grope in public and swim naked in an attempt to follow the therapist's advice. The trouble is, every time they get close to a magic moment, something terrible intervenes. After a while, that pattern does tend to cool off most of the heat of Mitchell's otherwise involving, learned narrative. (May 8) Forecast: The April release of Spirit Sickness in paperback, which includes a preview chapter from this title, and the continued popularity of Native American mysteries bode well for sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Comanche Bureau of Indian Affairs Agent Emmet Parker and Anna Turnipseed of the FBI return in this installment (after Spirit Sickness), which finds them seeking the services of a marriage counselor to sort through Anna's abusive past. All attempts at intimacy must be postponed as the two officiate at the examination of a 14,000-year-old Oregon skeleton called "John Day Man." The remains are clearly Caucasian, setting up uncomfortable dynamics as law enforcement officials, tribal representatives, and cantankerous, oddball anthropologist Thaddeus Rankin jockey for authority. When attractive tribal representative Elsa Dease goes missing, Anna and Emmet don't lack for unsavory suspects, including Basque shepherd and fossil hunter Gorka Bibao, elusive Paiute rodeo loser Tennyson Paulina, and a group of pagans calling themselves the Norse Folk Congress. As the murder tally rises, suspects and law enforcement alike are caught in the butchering killer's web. For larger public libraries and libraries in the Pacific Northwest. Susan A. Zappia, Paradise Valley Community Coll., Phoenix Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The goriest and funniest outing yet in a superior police procedural series involving Bureau of Indian Affairs investigator Emmet Parker and FBI Agent Anna Turpinseed (Spirit Sickness, 2000, etc.). Cursed are those who disturb the bones found when a spillway near the dammed John Day River in Oregon is flooded to help migrating salmon swim upstream. Uncovered by a rogue fossil-collector on land belonging to three Indian tribes, the remains are claimed immediately by tribal groups. Meanwhile, Parker and Turpinseed have yet to consummate their mutual passion, frustrated by neurotic fears that burden Turpinseed as a result of childhood sexual abuse. A psychiatrist advises them to try expressing their love-lust in public places, such as a roller coaster in a Las Vegas casino. Throughout, then, the running joke is that each time things steam up, the pair must answer the call of duty. What could have been an easy assignment, to officiate at the pro forma autopsy by loquacious anthropologist Thaddeus Rankin, becomes complicated when Rankin identifies the remains as belonging to a "Caucasoid" male who was murdered and cannibalized 14,600 years ago. Into this complicated situation steps Nels Sward, an unsettling adherent of ancient Norse pagan religion whose wife is having an affair with Indian shaman and sometime rodeo performer Tennyson Paulina. Sward is squabbling with tribal authorities over rights to rebury the body when one of the autopsy's witnesses mysteriously vanishes. Then the disemboweled body of the fossil collector is found gutted and roasting over coals. Mitchell piles up corpses and controversies as his characters wrestle with contradictions in Native American morality andracialorigin, especially after Parker and Turpinseed begin to suspect that the old bones in question might be much younger than they seem. The villain's identity will be obvious to some, but Mitchell's busy mix of gruesome horror, romantic pratfalls, and eerie mysticism keeps the suspense uniformly high.