Masked Dancers [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Jean Hager (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

The vicious murder of a wildlife officer shakes up an Oklahoma town in the fifth novel in this captivating Cherokee Nation mystery series, featuring Police Chief Mitch Bushyhead.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If Tony Hillerman first opened the door for Native American mysteries, Jean Hager is now holding it wide in grand style. Her Molly Bearpaw books(The Spirit Caller came out in 1997) are full of energy and controlled anger, and her series about Mitch Bushyhead, police chief of Buckskin, Oklahoma, presents deliberately cool-headed looks at volatile issues. In Masked Dancers, Chief Bushyhead, a recent widower and concerned parent of a teenaged daughter, continues learning about his own Cherokee heritage as he looks into the possibly linked deaths of a game warden and a high school principal. The warden was investigating the illegal slaughter of bald eagles, whose protected feathers are featured in the tribal dances staged by the educator. The most likely candidate for the killings is a racist fanatic, but the principal's wife also has some odd moves to explain. Other Bushyhead books in paperback include Fire Carrier and The Grandfather Medicine. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Police Chief Mitch Bushyhead of Buckskin, Oklahoma (The Fire-Carrier, etc.), faces a challenging puzzle in his sleepy bailiwick when, during a rainstorm, his daughter Emily and two friends seek shelter in a cave and discover the body of Wildlife warden Arnett Walsh, shot to death. Nearby, Mitch finds a dead bald eagle (forbidden prey) and a tiny, faded photo of a woman. He questions high school principal Vian Brasfield, a part-Cherokee obsessed with his Indian heritage and rumored to have supplied eagle feathers for the ceremonial dances held regularly on his property outside town. Brasfields property abuts land owned by anti-Indian, anti-government fanatic Dane Kennedy, long deserted by his wife. Danes son Hunter teaches at the high school; a daughter and son-in-law occupy a trailer on his land. Meantime, Brasfields stoic wife Nicole seems unperturbed when her husband vanishes after a Friday night dance at the Indian ground, where he cavorted in mask and costume. His body is found days later, in a pond on Kennedys property. Another death, and a long-in-coming identification of the faded photo, enable Mitch to throw a light on the surprising liaison and the long-ago events that will eventually solve the case. Tidily plotted but uncompellingly motivated: another chapter in the low-keyed, slow-moving town of Buckskin, where widower Mitchs burgeoning romance with local doctor Rhea is one of the livelier elements. Hager fans will love it. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 391 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786214856
• ISBN-13: 978-0786214853
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,609,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gret stort in a series that is totally mesmerizing, March 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Masked Dancers (Hardcover)

Arnett Walsh, an Oklahoma Wildlife Officer, is found dead in a nearby cave. The corpse was found by the daughter of the chief of the police and her friends. The police chief Mitch Bushyhead begins to investigate the murder.

Mitch quickly learns that the deceased was investigating the recent slaughter of bald eagles, animals under the protection of the Feds as an endangered species. Mitch soon has a prime suspect, the high school principal Vian Brasfield. The educator has been a major sponsor of Native American eagle dances, a type of performance that requires eagle feathers. However, Vian has vanished; his only enemy is Dane Kennedy, a political extremist and racist. It is up to Mitch to keep digging until he uncovers the truth behind the Walsh murder and the Brasfield disappearance.

MASKED DANCERS is the fifth Bushyhead mystery and, like its precursors, this is an appealing novel that is propelled forward by glimpses into the modern day Cherokee culture. Mitch is a phenomenal lead character and the support cast, especially his child Emily, addd much humanism to the tale. However, it is the brilliantly described clash between Federal statute and native custom that turns Jean Hager's latest book into a blockbuster of book.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it!!!!!!!!, June 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Masked Dancers (Hardcover)

I do believe this book was very wonderful. I liked this book. It was an absolutely fabulous mystery. Plus you just have to love Bushyhead. I liked all the many twists in the plot. The whole lesbian affair was very surprising. I loved it! Go Bushyhead! Go Jean Hager!