Book Review: Sky Woman Falling

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Sky Woman Falling     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Kirk Mitchell
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Ethnic   Woman Main Character   Native American
Series: Anna Turnipseed and Emmett Quanah Parker # 4
Berkley, Nov 2003, $22.95, 352 pp.

Comanche Emmett Parker was investigating a drive-by shooting on the San Sasinos Apache Reservation in Arizona when the attorney general’s office ordered him to go to Syracuse. Modoc Indian Anna Turnipseed was working a case in Las Vegas when she was assigned to work with Emmett. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the FBI agents have worked together in the past and always managed to solve their cases. Their superiors hopes they will be able to solve this one quickly for a lot is at stake.

Brenda Two Kettles of the Oneida nation fell from the sky one night breaking every bone in her body. The plane she was supposed to be on that evening passed nowhere near the point of her landing so the investigators conclude the perpetrator somehow persuaded her to come with him. The case is bigger than one woman because tensions between the Oneidas and the Anglos over land disputes have divided the two sides into antagonists. As Anna and Emett work the case they find themselves in danger from both hostile groups..

SKY WOMAN FALLING is an exciting police procedural that gives the audience a glimpse into the culture of the Oneida Nation. The two protagonists work well together, but in their personal lives they do not how to reach out to one another even though they both want that kind of intimacy. Kirk Mitchell is the new heir apparent to Tony Hillerman.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner