The Purification Ceremony

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

An elite group of hunters has gathered for a chance to hunt deer on an enormous estate on the border of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, in Sullivan's latest (The Fall Line, 1994). Among the hunters is Diana Jackman, a Micmac and Penobscot descendant whose Puoin (shaman) father taught her to track deer as a child. Diana, or Little Crow, has given herself this time in the woods as a respite from her ongoing divorce; her husband, who has been granted custody of their children, is smugly convinced that Diana is losing her mind-and she may be. Certainly, she has acted strangely and even dangerously since the suicide of her father, who may or may not have killed her mother years earlier. Immediately after the hunt begins, members start turning up gutted like deer and scalped. The hunters are trapped on the estate like prey, waiting for the scheduled plane to rescue them, until Diana takes charge, organizing them to fight back against the savage killer. Two deaths and one paralyzing injury later, Diana strikes out to confront the killer-and her rage at her father-alone. Sullivan expresses an unusual pro-hunting stance in this novel, discoursing on the Native American understanding of the true hunt. Although the narrative occasionally falters, it is a mark of Sullivan's skill as a storyteller that he makes the vast Canadian wilderness feel confining, overseen by a murderous maniac who could be behind any tree.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

An elite group of hunters has gathered for a chance to hunt deer on an enormous estate on the border of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, in Sullivan's latest (The Fall Line, 1994). Among the hunters is Diana Jackman, a Micmac and Penobscot descendant whose Puoin (shaman) father taught her to track deer as a child. Diana, or Little Crow, has given herself this time in the woods as a respite from her ongoing divorce; her husband, who has been granted custody of their children, is smugly convinced that Diana is losing her mindand she may be. Certainly, she has acted strangely and even dangerously since the suicide of her father, who may or may not have killed her mother years earlier. Immediately after the hunt begins, members start turning up gutted like deer and scalped. The hunters are trapped on the estate like prey, waiting for the scheduled plane to rescue them, until Diana takes charge, organizing them to fight back against the savage killer. Two deaths and one paralyzing injury later, Diana strikes out to confront the killerand her rage at her fatheralone. Sullivan expresses an unusual pro-hunting stance in this novel, discoursing on the Native American understanding of the true hunt. Although the narrative occasionally falters, it is a mark of Sullivan's skill as a storyteller that he makes the vast Canadian wilderness feel confining, overseen by a murderous maniac who could be behind any tree. 300,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo; foreign rights sold in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Norway. (June)

Library Journal

Diana Jackson, also known as Little Crow, is a deer hunter, trained in the Native American ways of tracking by her parents and great uncle. She is also a shaman, in tune with the spirits that inhabit the forest. After a series of tragic events, she denies her spirituality yet can't fully devote herself to a domestic life. Distraught and estranged from her family, she joins a commercial deer hunt on a vast estate in British Columbia. Soon she and the other hunters are stalked by a beastlike killer bent on destroying them all; Little Crow must become one with the creatures of the forest to save her companions, perhaps at the price of her own sanity. While the outcome of the story is predictable, Little Crow's voiceweary, pain-filled, and, finally, at peaceis compelling. In her, Sullivan (Hard News, Kensington, 1995) has created a unique character who should be heard from again. Recommended.Laurel A. Wilson, Alexandrian P.L, Mount Vernon, Ind.

Kirkus Reviews

Hunters get hunted by a vengeful lunatic in this all-stops- out yarn of the world's worst hunting trip.

James Metcalfe's thousand-square-mile spread on the border of Alberta and British Columbia is the best-stocked site for trophy deer hunting on the face of the earth. Now that Metcalfe's dead, his estate's been opened to hunting parties. The first party (each member has paid a fee of $7,000 for a week's hunt) includes three childhood buddies from Pennsylvania; a Nashville gun-store owner who hunts with bow and arrow; a Texas millionaire and his latest trophy wife; a knee-jerk liberal magazine writer planning an anti-hunting exposé; and Diana Jackman (a.k.a. Little Crow), a partNative American software writer who's going back to the woods in a desperate attempt to silence the demons from her troubled past. Diana's had no peace since her long-estranged father died; his death revealed his existence to her shocked husband for the first time. Now her decision to splurge on the Metcalfe junket has put her marriage on the rocks. But the real danger lies ahead, with an implacable spirit who seems bent on destroying the inaugural party by stalking and murdering them. Does James Metcalfe walk again (if he ever really died), or is the killer his nasty son Ronny? Is the motive a simple hatred of hunting, or does the killer have something personal against this particular party? And how can Diana defeat an adversary who seems to have the finely-honed senses and killer instincts of a wolf?

Deliverance meets And Then There Were None, with a cast out of Gilligan's Island. Sullivan (Hard News, 1995, etc.) handles the hunter-hunted scenario with a slickness seasoned with mingled aromas of peyote, animal musk, and testosterone. Shorn of the heavy-going mystical ruminations that are bound to be cut, the inevitable movie should be a first-rate actioner.