Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
Cry Dance
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Kirk Mitchell
Class/Genre: Mystery Ethnic Government Agency
Series: Anna Turnipseed and Emmett Quanah Parker # 1
Bantam, Mar 1999, $23.00, 354 pp.
Renowned investigator Emmett Quanah Parker works for the Bureau of Indian affairs. His successful efforts cross so many tribes. Many Native Americans consider him a living legend. Still, his resume fails to prepare him for his current case on Hauqsupai land. Someone tortured and mutilated a woman, leaving her face so scarred that she is beyond recognition. The brutality of the culprit is not the only thing that leaves Emmett ill. He must work with FBI Special Agent Anna Turnspeed, a rookie with no field experience.
The victim turns out to be Stephanie Roper, a senior official working for the Bureau of Land management. The agency empowered Ms. Roper to authorize land deals that impacted Native Americans. The trail leads Emmett and Stephanie to an Indian casino and ultimately to the last of the Chemuheus. The elderly woman claims the reservation for herself. Emmett soon traces the path to IMG, a company promoting reservation gambling. Anna, without Emmett's knowledge, goes undercover at the Spirit Meadows Casino in an effort to ferret out a killer before someone else is murdered. Now Emmett has something else to worry about as his case takes twists he never expected.
CRY DANCE provides readers with well-written and interesting descriptions of reservation gambling, tribal problems, and the degree of true autonomy from the world of DC. The two prime characters are warm and witty when kept in isolation. However, the twosome never seems to click in any remote way, leaving the readers to peruse what appears to be a dysfunctional story line whenever the two heroes appear together. Mostly this is caused by Emmett being more of a one-dimensional Shane after the gunslinger leaves the ranch. Readers will simply cry off CRY DANCE.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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