The Night Visitor (Charlie Moon Series Book 5)

“Wholly satisfying . . . mystery, archaeology, shamanism, and humor blended into an entertaining page-turner.” —Albuquerque JournalNathan McFain has discovered something astonishing buried beneath his foundering Colorado dude ranch: the bones of a gargantuan beast from a prehistoric age. It’s a find of enormous scientific importance that attracts the attention of a variety of individuals: paleontologist Moses Silver and his archaeologist daughter; esteemed scientists 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. Moon is at the McFain spread primarily to keep an eye on the disreputable Flye, but he’s also curious about the strange old bones ....and wary as well, for things this ancient and rare have been known to inspire evils in the past, including avarice, mendacity, and murder. And when one of the players in this drama vanishes, Charlie worries that his greatest fears have been realized. But while Charlie investigates the disappearance—and a suspicious death that soon follows—using rational and accepted police methods, his aunt Daisy, the aged shaman, 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 two extraordinary young girls in her care, ensnaring them all in something old, dark, and dangerous. . . . “Doss dazzles with his trademark blend of Native-American folklore, science, satire and suspense.” —Publishers Weekly“Thought-provoking insights about modern and ancient life in the American West, and a quirky, effective mix of humor and melancholy.” —Booklist“A hybrid of Tony Hillerman and Carl Hiaasen.” —The Denver Post

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.

From Library Journal

Ute lawman Charlie Moon and shaman Daisy Perika return in another satisfying blend of modern murder and ancient beliefs, set on the Southern Ute Reservation in Colorado. Charlie investigates a murder associated with a paleontological dig, while Daisy senses a much older injustice. An excellent addition to the series. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Despite autumn's reputation as a quiet time, police sergeant Charlie Moon finds his Ute Indian reservation bustling with mystery and crime. First an apparition haunts Charlie's aunt Daisy Perika, an elderly Ute shaman. Then a bar fight and a discovery unearthed by a whirlwind unleash a wave of greed and murder. This fifth Shaman mystery has full-bodied characters, vivid descriptions of southern Colorado, thought-provoking insights about modern and ancient life in the American West, and a quirky, effective mix of humor and melancholy. As in the earlier installments of this series--including The Shaman's Bones (1997)--the supernatural elements of the story play a more significant role than they do in the work of either Tony Hillerman or Margaret Coel (see starred review, p.2033), both of whom also set their series on Native American reservations. Still, fans of either of those series will want to read Doss, too. John Rowen

From Kirkus Reviews

Another visit to the Colorado territory of Ute Indian policeman Charlie Moon, his white friend Scott Parris, chief of police at nearby Granite Creek, and Charlie's aged Aunt Daisy, a shaman afflicted by visions and prophecies, presently sharing her trailer home with eight-year-old orphan Sarah Frank (The Shaman's Game, 1998, etc.). The whole area is talking about the mammoth skeleton found on Nathan McFain's dude ranch, now being examined, under a huge tent, by world-famed experts in the fields of paleontology and archaeology, headed by Professor Moses Silver and his daughter Dr. Delia Silverand being heralded by no less than the cover of' Time magazine. The diggers are deaf Jimson Beugmann and Horace Flye, a newcomer from Arkansas who shares his beat-up trailer with his six-year-old daughter Butter. An important second find at the site is a flint blade that eventually brings Charlie and Scott into a complex plot involving a wealthy collector, tons of' money, and local antiques dealer Ralph Briggs. More importantly, it leads to the deaths of McBain and Flye, leaving Butter in Aunt Daisy's care and Charlie to figure out the whole unlikely series of' events. The patient reader with a taste for Indian lore will be intrigued. Others may be put off by the endless turns of plot and the too-frequent, determinedly poetic explorations of myths and mesas. A hard-working combination of fantasy and practicality, then, but not for everyone. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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!).

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