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Book two in the Anasazi Mysteries series, The Summoning God is the sequel to The Visitant, in which archaeologist-authors Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear introduced readers to murder, mayhem, and the myriad details of life in a 13th-century Native American pueblo. In both novels, the narrative arcs between the present and the past, drawing aside the seemingly thin veil of time that separates them. Here, as archaeologists Dusty Stewart and Maureen Cole sift through an ancient Anasazi kiva, attempting to understand the circumstances that could have led to the presence of 33 charred children's bodies in the ceremonial chamber, we also see the members of the pueblo as they move toward the terrible destruction so carefully unearthed by Stewart and Cole. This narrative device isn't revolutionary, but it is clever: the demands of classic mystery plotting (we have a corpse, but who committed the crime?) are fulfilled, while the reader lives simultaneously in the worlds of evidence creation and deduction.
The Anasazi characters will be familiar to readers of The Visitant: warriors Browser and Catkin, holy men Springbank and Stone Ghost, and the witch Two Hearts continue to move silently through the sand and sagebrush, circling through a world marked by warring religions and vanishing resources. When Browser and Catkin find a mutilated old woman surrounded by the skulls of her clan, they must summon all their courage to combat what surely must be witchcraft--or is it? Although the narrative founders at times in a sea of murkily presented myth, the characters are vibrantly drawn (though to watch an Anasazi holy man conduct an autopsy in a manner that would do Kay Scarpetta proud is one of several discordant anachronisms).
The Summoning God, like its predecessor, renders the lives and habits of the Anasazi in compelling detail: we learn that they used blazing star petals for perfume and that their ceremonial purification rites included cornmeal and ground seashells. Though the tenacity with which the authors seek to hammer home a situational equivalency between modern life and the 13th century is sometimes painfully heavy-handed, the evocation of daily life never is. Readers might wish to acknowledge that overutilization of resources, a thirst for territory, and a propensity toward holy wars are indeed threads that bind us to the Anasazi--then ignore the lectures and settle into the story. --Kelly Flynn
From Publishers Weekly
This memorable novel of the vanished Anasazi, the second in the series (following The Visitant), provides sober ecological lessons for our own civilization. The Gears, who are also collaborators on the First North Americans series, tell the brutal story of one 13th-century tribe, the Katsinas' People, as they tumble down the path that leads to the sudden disappearance of the Anasazi. In parallel, the authors also tell the tale of a team of contemporary archeologists and anthropologists excavating the ancient site that bears witness to the Anasazi tragedy. The earlier-set narrative follows the fortunes of the Katsinas' People, led by Matron Flame Carrier and War Chief Browser. The tribe is already reeling from the effects of enemy attacks and attrition on the many small pueblos that dot northwestern New Mexico. While the external threat is bad enough, Flame Carrier and Browser must also contend with a serial murderer within the tribe. In the present, archeologist Dusty Stewart and anthropologist Maureen Cole each have their own intimate links to this past. As they excavate, those links and the fate of the puebloans become clearer. Their new novel is not for the squeamish, but the Gears offer unusual insight into Anasazi culture and history, while in an afterword, they suggest that it may already be too late for us to escape a fate similar to that of the Anasazi. An extensive bibliography bolsters their argument. (July) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
Book II of the Anasazi mysteries is a complex, two-tiered story with a double cast of characters. In alternating chapters, twentieth-century physical anthropologists on the Mesa Verde plateau unearth just those pieces of archaeological evidence that enable the twelfth-century Anasazi story to unfold smoothly. Bernadette Dunne has a voice of unparalleled elegance and clarity, and she reads this story with the passion and intensity of spirit the authors themselves feel for their subject. However, the broad range of different cultures over eight hundred years apart is a daunting task, and Dunne's male and female characters are not well differentiated. Dunne's voice lacks the breadth and depth the double plot demands. M.D.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Review
"At heart a murder mystery. All questions are answered, but the evil remains. "--Kirkus Reviews
Review
"At heart a murder mystery. All questions are answered, but the evil remains. "--Kirkus Reviews
Book Description
Step back into the year A.D. 1263...and the secret lair of a killer. He walks the ruins of a dying civilization, stalking the weak, the chosen, stalking them into terror.
When War Chief Browser stumbles into a subterranean ceremonial chamber filled with headless bodies, he know it is just the beginning. The darkness that has haunted him for most of his life has returned. A murderer lurks in the shadows around Browser's village, taking people one at a time. Browser turns for help to a crazy tribal elder who has solved many crimes before. Browser is certain old Stone Ghost knows the killer, but the elder is telling no one. As Browser frantically works to find the fiend, the murderer watched from closer than he would ever dream...
Only a few heartbeats ahead in geological time, archaeologist, William "Dusty" Stewart, finds himself excavating a mass grave in new Mexico filled with the burned bodies of children. As the number of bodies begins to mount, he is forced to call upon the skills of his arch-nemesis: world-reknowned Canadian physical anthropologist, Dr. Maureen Cole. What Dusty and Maureen discover about the killer's methods is almost too horrible to believe.
From the national award-winning archaeologist and international bestselling author of The Vistant comes a novel of unforgettable terror about mass murder in America eight hundred years ago...
From the Publisher
11 1.5-hour cassettes
About the Author
Kathleen O'Neal Gear is a former state historian and archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She has twice received the federal government's Special Advancement Award for "outstanding management" of our nation's cultural heritage.
W. Michael Gear, who holds a master's degree in archaeology, has worked as a professional archaeologist since 1978. He is currently principal investigator for Wind River Archaeological Consultants.
The Gears, whose First North American Series and Anasazi Mystery Series, are both international as well as USA Today bestsellers live in Thermopolis, Wyoming.
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