Sky Woman Falling

Publishers Weekly

Mitchell combines a great story line with an authentic Native-American background in his flawless fourth mystery (after 2001's The Ancient Ones) to feature FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed, a Modoc, and Bureau of Indian Affairs investigator Emmett Parker, a Comanche. When the body of Brenda Two Kettles turns up in a frozen field near her New York reservation, her severe injuries leave no doubt that she fell from the sky, just like Sky Woman in the Oneida story of creation. Enter the Feds' Indian hunting party, Turnipseed and Parker. The Oneida nation's 1985 win in a Supreme Court decision has still not succeeded in the return of their rightful ownership of 270,000 acres now in the hands of about 60,000 white people. Finding an answer seems impossible, though many forces are at work to reach a peaceful resolution. Yet how does an Oneida Indian take a commercial airliner and end up falling to her death? Anna becomes increasingly aware that the solution is somehow connected to the Oneidas' creation story. As the body count rises, she and her almost-lover, Emmett, realize they have no time to work on their damaged personal lives. As a former deputy on the Paiute-Shoshone Indian reservations in California, the author knows the real issues facing Native Americans today. Packed with suspense and action, this intricate tale delivers a conclusion that is nothing short of brilliant. (Nov. 4) Forecast: Because of the graphic violence in his books, Mitchell is unlikely to win as wide a readership as Tony Hillerman. On the other hand, those who like grittier crime novels should give this a boost. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Native American myth, Oneida land claims, and psychosis complicate the latest case of Indian Affairs specialists Emmett Parker and Anna Turnipseed (Ancient Ones, 2001, etc.). How could Brenda Two Kettles have been thrown off Adirondack flight 557 en route to New York from Syracuse without anyone noticing? Is it possible she wasn't on the plane but was tossed through a hole in the ether, like the Sky Woman of myth? Maybe, but FBI agents Parker (Comanche) and Turnipseed (Modoc) also zero in on Garrity, a plane mechanic and member of the Upstate Minutemen, who violently resented the land claims that would entitle the Oneida to billions in reparations. Christopher White Pine, an author, therapist, and special assistant to the Oneida Nations representative, has his own ideas, and so do the higher-ups at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau, the local cops, airlines security and maintenance personnel, Two Kettles's relatives, and even Johnny T. Skyholder, the slow-witted, behemoth handyman at the Cultural Center. Several more bodies crash to earth; planes almost taxi into Parker; and an axe-wielding baddie lays him low. Turnipseed drives all over the ice-and-snow landscape in pursuit of divers suspects, ultimately falling through the air herself when a killer tries to turn her into Sky Woman. An awful lot of crucial information depends on hypnosis and Turnipseed's dreams. In addition, there's numbing aeronautic detail, some grisly death sequences, and a rather touching ending to the Parker-Turnipseed romance.