The Trickster

A rampaging evil spirit emerges in the ski resort town of Silver, taking human and animal form during its grisly killing spree, and when Native American Sam Hunt is accused, he turns to his shaman ancestry for help. Reprint. K.

Amazon.com Review

In a remote town high in the Canadian Rockies, some mysterious and terrible killer is on the loose. Mutilated bodies appear in the snow, with no human footprints nearby. For Sam Hunt, this is especially terrifying -- Sam has been having blackouts, waking up miles from home, with blood on his face and no idea what he's been doing... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A seamless fusion of the supernatural and the psychological distinguishes this page-turning first novel, an impressive distillation of the Native Canadian experience. When a series of brutal murders rocks the snowbound Canadian town of Silver, suspicion falls on Sam Hunt (ne Hunting Wolf), a Kinchuinick Sioux who can't account for his actions or whereabouts during the blackouts that have recently afflicted him. Sam's renunciation of his tribal heritage years earlier in order to escape his abusive reservation upbringing has left him full of self-loathing and vulnerable to the mythical Trickster, a demonic "mirror that would kill its own reflection," who is channeling Sam's suppressed anger to wreak vengeance on the human race. Scottish writer Gray suspensefully intercuts scenes of the Trickster's gruesome mischief and Sam's painful self-examination with parallel events from the turn of the century, when Sam's shaman ancestor saved a town of disbelieving white folk from the Trickster's exploits and created a burden of family duty that Sam must now fulfill if he is to protect his family and friends. Although the narrative sprawls across nearly a century of history and the experiences of a vivid and varied cast of characters, Gray neatly frames its dramatic high points in terms of tensions between the white and Kinchuinick cultures. Her poignant rendering of Sam's identity crisis reflects those tensions and provides a compelling portrait of a man in the grip of forces beyond his control. Tersely plotted and richly laced with Sioux lore, this novel marks an auspicious fiction debut. Major ad/promo. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

In a remote ski resort high in the Canadian Rockies, something is going terribly wrong. A young police officer is found murdered and strangely mutilated. A truck driver is found frozen solid in his truck, doors and windows closed, with snow drifts inside the cab. A hotshot skier is found dead and bloody in deep snow, with no human footprints anywhere near the body. Fear begins to spread that a bizarre and ingenious serial killer is on the loose. But for Sam Hunt, who turned his back on his Indian roots to live in white society, the fear is especially strong: He's been having blackouts, waking up miles away from where he started, with blood on his face and absolutely no recollection of what he's done. The Trickster is relentless and terrifying suspense -- the most talked-about debut thriller of the year, by a writer of unique and startling gifts. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Doubleday is throwing its weight behind this debut, whose protagonist comfortably ignores his Native American roots until he finds himself waking up miles from home with no memory of what he has done. Since a number of gruesome and mysterious murders have occurred in his neighborhood, he certainly has cause for concern.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

First you'll think Gray is simply a Stephen King clone; then you'll think, so what if she is, she tells a gripping story with a main character you come to care a lot about and a plot that, while it takes time to get going, eventually gets going great guns. Sam is a Kinchuinick Indian from Alberta, Canada, where the action takes place. People in the area are dying horrible deaths. In flashbacks to a time around the turn of the century, the author suggests early on that there's some connection between these deaths and the Indian belief in an evil force called the Trickster. As the story unfolds, we see the evil power taking several forms in the present day and we learn that Sam is caught in a vortex of energies, swept around by ancestral spirits--shamans whose potencies he inherited from the paternal side of the family. The struggle between these primeval forces, between Sam and the Trickster, between good and evil, makes for a page-turning reading experience. With a big promotion behind it, this novel is bound to be heavily requested. Brad Hooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Muriel Gray was born in Glasgow in 1958, is a BA honours graduate in graphic design and illustration of the Glasgow School of Art, and worked as a professional illustrator before joining the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh as assistant head of design.She then moved into broadcasting starting as a presenter on Channel 4's seminal music programme The Tube, presenting all five series alongside Jools Holland and the late Paula Yates, whilst still retaining her post at the museum.A full-time career spanning more than three decades in the media followed, presenting many diverse flagship network radio and television programmes, including: The Media Show, Frocks on The Box, Ride On, The Booker Prize Live, Start The Week, The John Peel Show, Bliss, The Munro Show, Art is Dead, Walkie Talkie, The Snow Show and many others, as well as producing, directing, and then founding her own award-winning production company which grew into the largest in Scotland.She became a bestselling novelist with the publication of her debut horror novel, The Trickster, in 1995, and this was followed by Furnace in 1998 and The Ancient in 2001, which Stephen King hailed as being `scary and unputdownable'.She is also known as a political opinion writer for Time Out magazine, The Sunday Correspondent, The Sunday Mirror, Scotland on Sunday, The Sunday Herald, and continues to contribute regularly to The Guardian and other publications. She has won several prizes for journalism including columnist of the year at the Scottish press awards.Muriel is a former rector of Edinburgh University, still the only woman to have held this post, and has been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Abertay and Glasgow School of Art via Glasgow University. She is currently chair of the board of governorsat Glasgow School of Art, also the only woman to have held this post.She lives in Glasgow with her husband and three children. Her greatest disappointment is that she has not yet been abducted by aliens. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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