Ancient Ones

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 have been sent to central Oregon as official witnesses to the examination of the relics.

But the bones quickly provoke a controversy that threatens to erupt into violence: the skeleton is not Native American but distinctly Caucasian, shattering long-held tenets of who first inhabited this continent.

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.

As people connected to the case begin to lose their lives, Emmett and Anna are paralyzed by their own demons. And if they stop watching each other’s back, even for a moment, the killer may target them too.

From Kirk Mitchell comes a riveting suspense thriller in the tradition of Tony Hillerman and Joseph Wambaugh, featuring Bureau of Indian Affairs Criminal Investigator Emmett Quanah Parker and FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed, two Native American cops searching for justice between their heritage and the law.

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 have been sent to central Oregon as official witnesses to the examination of the relics.

But the bones quickly provoke a controversy that threatens to erupt into violence: the skeleton is not Native American but distinctly Caucasian, shattering long-held tenets of who first inhabited this continent.

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.

As people connected to the case begin to lose their lives, Emmett and Anna are paralyzed by their own demons. And if they stop watching each other’s back, even for a moment, the killer may target them too.

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.

Kirk Mitchell is a veteran of law enforcement in Indian country. An Edgar Award nominee for a previous novel, he lives in the Sierra Nevada of California.