Cry Dance [Hardcover]

Kirk Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 1999

If there's one thing Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator Emmet Quanah Parker knows, it's that the dead don't always stay dead. With him he carries the ghosts of a partner killed in action, three failed marriages, and a long affair with the bottle. And now he's about to face the most dangerous case of his career--one that begins with a body that doesn't stay buried.

Brutally murdered and bizarrely mutilated, a woman's corpse is discovered on Havasupai Nation land. Parker is paired with FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed in a hastily assembled task force of two. The two share a mixed Native American ancestry...and little else. As they are pulled deeper into a complex case, Parker suspects they are being led--like Custer into Little Bighorn--into a killer's trap, with Anna the bait and Parker himself the quarry. At the heart of it are the dead, with history the most lethal weapon of all....


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Edgar Award nominee Mitchell (Deep Valley Malice), an ex-California SWAT cop formerly assigned to the reservations of Inyo County, offers a taut thriller about criminal control of tribal gambling casinos. Peppered with bureaucratic legalese and illuminated by fascinating lore of the Southwestern tribes, the plot is layered with authenticity. Investigating the mutilation murder of a Las Vegas-based officer of the Bureau of Land Management, Emmett Quanah Parker, part-white, part-Comanche investigator for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is assigned to work with rookie FBI agent, half-Modoc, half-Japanese Anna Turnipseed. Although the BLM agent's body was found on a remote reservation in Arizona with her face neatly sliced off, it becomes evident that she was killed near the borax pits in Death Valley, Calif., while working on an Indian land trade involving the site for a proposed super casino near an off-ramp of Interstate 15. While Parker is in Carson City to interrogate the gaming syndicate's lawyer, Parker's old enemy, FBI agent Burk Hagiman, defies Parker's judgment and sends Anna undercover to work as a dealer at a backwater casino, where, of course, she encounters danger. The complex plot slowly reveals a conspiracy involving Jamaicans, Vegas hitmen and double-dealing Native Americans. Throughout, Mitchell tightly controls his material, his bitterness over the white man's legacy to Native Americans evident in historical asides. Unfortunately, the heart-stopping action is marred by his preoccupation with landscape, too many cardboard cutout bad Indians and a cartoonish nemesis. The climax based on the villain's change of heart is too contrived to maintain full credibility, blurring the earlier promise of a nail-biting end. Despite all this, Parker and Turnipseed make a memorable literary pair.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Mitchell's Southwest is as hauntingly beautiful and culturally complex as the real thing. When the faceless corpse of Stephanie Roper, a wheeling-dealing top official of the Bureau of Land Management, is discovered near Arizona's Havasupai Reservation, stoical Comanche Bureau of Indian Affairs investigator Emmett Quanah Parker is teamed with attractive, half-Modoc, half-Japanese FBI rookie Anna Turnipseed. Parker immediately senses that the killer is toying with them, providing clue after easy clue. As Anna goes undercover dealing cards at a Shoshone tribal casino, Parker heads to Lake Tahoe, where he almost loses his hand to the murderer's knife, temporarily loses the killer's scent, but nets another faceless corpse. Mitchell (Fredericksburg, LJ 2/1/96) was a law enforcement officer on the reservation in California's Inyo County and possesses an insider's knowledge of Native American history and the Southwest's brooding landscape. A good purchase, especially for Tony Hillerman fans.ASusan A. Zappia, Maricopa Cty. Lib. Dist., Phoenix
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (March 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553108107
• ISBN-13: 978-0553108101
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,457,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hillerman isn't threatened yet..., June 11, 2000

By 

Wombat Laughing "Mombat" (Kingman, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cry Dance (Mass Market Paperback)

I live near the place where this novel was set, and I loved the author's descriptions of the people and scenery. But I was able to put this down. That's not good--I'm one of those people who will read all night if it's good (and I read 10-12 books/week). But I will buy the next book in the series...I did like it just fine.

Go for it! (and Mr. Mitchell, please put in more about the Comanches! I've always loved Quanah Parker)

Well worth a read...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real page turner, December 13, 1999

By 

Geoffrey Merrill (South Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cry Dance (Hardcover)

A real page turner. Mitchell really tells a great story. Lots of plot twists and surprises. I couldn't put the book down. It was especially fun seeing how Emmett Parker and Anna Turnipseed finally manage to work together despite their conflicting personalities. Mitchell makes these two characters so real, I feel I've known them for years and can't wait to see what happens to them next. Great read for Tony Hillerman, Robert B. Parker, Clive Cussler fans.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile Reading, February 16, 2000

By 

Frank Murano (Reno, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cry Dance (Hardcover)

Aside from being an easy-reading, enjoyable murder mystery (the ending of which is not easily guessed), Kirk Mitchell provides the reader with information concerning Native American tribes and their customs. Recommended reading.