Ghost Dance [Mass Market Paperback]

Mark T. Sullivan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like his most recent (and most successful) thriller, The Purification Ceremony, Sullivan's fourth novel unfolds in rural America and features a strong Native American theme. There the resemblance ends, for there's little of Purification's eerie magic in this frustratingly roundabout suspense story tracking the sins of a dead priest in a Vermont town haunted by cross-cultural demons. Patrick Gallagher, a cultural anthropologist and filmmaker from Brooklyn, has come to the isolated Green Mountain community of Lawton to produce a documentary on an obscure parish priest who is being considered for sainthood. Father D'Angelo had healed 14 people during the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic, before dying; his last words: "Pray for me. I am one of the damned!" Gallagher rents a cabin from beautiful recovering alcoholic Andromeda ("Andie") Nightingale, who happens to be a sergeant in the state police, and goes flyfishingAa means of distraction on the day he's turning 40 and his ex-wife is getting remarried. One "fish" he hooks turns out to be the mutilated corpse of a local dentist. This is the first of a string of murders that all point to a local sociopath calling himself CharunAa variant of the Greek CharonAwho leaves notes alluding vaguely to Greek and Roman mythology and the Lawton river. The discovery of the journal of a Sioux woman describing the significant soul-releasing death ritual of the Ghost Dance holds clues to the murders, as does the ancestry of a disturbed former Lawton resident. Gallagher, who begins to have disturbing mystical dreams, aids Andie as she investigatesAand tries not to fall off the wagonAand they tentatively embark on a love affair. Sullivan, however, allows little emotional engagement with these characters. Moreover, the plot veers wildly, with the Father D'Angelo documentary element introduced and then quickly abandoned until two-thirds of the way through, when it is hastily and improbably reactivated. The narrative suffers from inflated prose ("Are you afraid now?" the villain "wickedly" asks a damsel in distress), and even solid background on the Ghost Dance lore of the Sioux doesn't save it from hokum. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Sullivan is an investigative journalist whose life took a turn when he published The Purification Ceremony, a thriller that got a few raves. Once again deploying a Native American theme, he introduces readers to documentary filmmaker Patrick Gallagher, who's looking for a little peace in small-town Vermont. Instead, he finds brutal murder that leads to a generations-old mystery and, finally, the Lakota "ghost dance."
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380790432
• ISBN-13: 978-0380790432
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,035,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical / Modern Thriller, May 15, 2000

By 

Mamalinde "mamalinde" (Dallas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Dance (Hardcover)

A finely composed contemporary thriller that unravels a century old mystery. The protagonists are battered, believable members of the baby boom generation, who find themselves having to match wits with a frightening crew of townspeople intent on cover-up of old crimes, and the very deepest evil. Native American religion, a priest up for sainthood, twisted sex, a psychopathic misfit, and dreams and visions from beyond - somehow it all seems to work. The title of this book first captured my attention, as in the past few months the Ghost Dance has appeared in two other pieces of my reading: RavenShadow and Garden in the Dunes, both of which Mamalinda has also reviewed on Amazon, in case your next stop is Wounded Knee.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars REALLY fun and scary book to read!, February 2, 2004

By A Customer

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

I loved this book! I read this during my first year of college and had such a great time with it that I actually found myself late to classes because I just couldn't put it down! It was really a psychologically terrifying novel! I haven't read a lot of books where I was so deeply involved with the characters and so into the plot! I really loved this book. I don't understand the negative reviews because I have also read the Purification Ceremony and thought this book was much better! Read this book!!!! It's the perfect book for reading during a cold, winters night sitting by the fire! I loved it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ouch., May 1, 2002

By 

sfobos (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Dance (Hardcover)

To begin, I loved THE PURIFICATION CEREMONY. The taut suspense, muscular, adrenalized prose and delicious blend of action/mysticism were a wonderful surprise, and on finishing it I immediately hunted down a used copy of GHOST DANCE. Yikes. To paraphrase the previous reviewer, I can't believe this is the work of the same author. Sullivan once again walks into action/mysticism territory, only to immediately fall flat on his face, break his nose and then proceed to stumble blindly for several hundred pages.

I can't recall the last book I read where the writing was this awkward and forced. Everything from the name of the heroine (full name: Andromeda Nightengale... yeah, that just flows off the tongue) on forward seems the product of a writer trying desperately to replicate a successful formula without the benefit of real inspiration or, for that matter, an interesting story to tell. "Hmmm... what should I do next. I know: CIA assassins! No, no, wait -- I'll have my protagonists stumble into a cave and find some valuable piece of evidence... again. Or I could just give them another feverish, mystical vision. Nobody's tried that before!"

Why did I actually finish this book? I had 4 hours to kill on a plane, and it was either this or try to lipread "Gosford Park." I'm not sure I made the right decision. THE PURIFICATION CEREMONY was good enough to make me curious about Mr. Sullivan's future efforts, but GHOST DANCE is about as painful a mis-step as you'll ever encounter in print.