People of the Mist (First North Americans, Book 9) [Mass Market Paperback]

Kathleen O'Neal Gear (Author), W. Michael Gear (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1998

With People of the Mist, the Gears take us to the Chesapeake Bay of six hundred years ago, when the unprovoked and brutal murder of a young woman on the eve of her wedding threatens to turn the entire Algonquin Nation against itself in a brutal war that could destroy them as a people.

No ordinary woman, Red Knot was the heir to the Greenstone clan and the future leader of the independent villages. Her death has shattered all alliances and left a power void which several ambitious clan chiefs see as their destiny to fill. The very air vibrates with the drums and war cries of the rallying warriors.

Into the eye of this brewing storm steps the bitter old man they call The Panther. Feared as a sorcerer, The Panther is the only one with the power to demand to be heard by all. But as he digs deeper into the ever-thickening web of lies surrounding the murder, and uncovers darker, more deeply rooted secrets, he fears there may be no words to stop the impending bloodshed.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Knowing that her granddaughter, Red Knot, loves High Fox does not keep Hunting Hawk, the Greenstone Clan tribal leader, from promising her in marriage to Copper Thunder, a powerful chieftain of another clan. When Red Knot is murdered before the marriage takes place, chaos erupts, and High Fox is fingered as the assassin. High Fox's trump card is Sun Conch, who begs the Panther to leave his isolated dwelling and help her absolve High Fox of the crime. The Panther, a mysterious elder whom many fear and call a witch, joins the fray, and thus begins the unfolding of an intricate drama. Masters of the Native American historical fiction genre, the Gears focus on the pre-Columbian Chesapeake Bay Native Americans in the ninth book of their "First North Americans" series. Suffused with suspense, their imaginative story offers a fascinating portrait of an ancient matrilineal culture. Highly recommended.
-?Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This work continues the highly successful First North Americans series (which includes People of the Wolf [1990] and People of the Lightning [1997]), and shows why it has been so popular: it offers a first-rate murder mystery, anthropological information (the authors are prizewinning archaeologists) on pre-European Native America, a slight dash of sex (mostly innocent), and plenty of politics. Whew! The amazing thing is that it is all done so well. Red Knot has been betrothed to Copper Thunder in order to forge an alliance that will protect both their tribes. When she is murdered on the day of her wedding, it threatens to throw the tribal villages along the Chesapeake into a bloody war. Suspicion for the crime falls on Sun Conch, who had a relationship with the girl before she was promised away. Old Panther, a recluse, and possibly a powerful witch, is asked to look into the situation before it explodes. He is drawn into a convoluted web where it appears that everyone had good reason to wish the girl dead, and even the innocent work to obscure the trail. Eric Robbins --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (November 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812515609
• ISBN-13: 978-0812515602
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars People of the Mist is a compelling and gripping novel, April 2, 1999

By 

Courtney Lynn Leiphart (courtneylynn@cheerful... (Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: People of the Mist (First North Americans, Book 9) (Mass Market Paperback)

When I sat down to read 'People of the Mist', I was not sure what to expect. The synopsis on the back cover said that the book was about the Native American people in the Chesapeake bay area, and in particular about the murder of a young girl, Red Knot. Well, I was amazed with the writing style of Kathleen O'Neal Gear, and W. Michael Gear. I got into the book after a chapter or two, and couldn't put it down. The authors had me guessing till the very end of the book as to who the murderer was, and I'm usually good at figuring things like that out. If you want a good novel with an excellent mystery componant to it, 'People of the Mist' is the book for you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Different style but just as good..., December 17, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Molokai, Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: People of the Mist (First North Americans, Book 9) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the latest book in the People series that I have read, and it is a little different from the rest. It was given to me by a friend, and I thought that the storyline didn't sound to exciting (I'm not into that mystery type books), but I was in for a surprise. This book was awesome! Second best that they have written... I liked People of the River the best... and very entertaining. The charachters are not as mystic and dreamerlike as the other People books are, but it makes them more believable, and realistic. The Panther was so intriguing, his past and present life. I liked the way he allowed mostly everyone to think he was a witch, when he really was just an old man who resented his past mistakes but had the Power (a different kind of Power than htat of the other books in this series), to correct those of others. Sun Conch was so regal and brave, she didn't desrve to love such a coward. I almost cried when... well, you gotta read it. Throughout the whole book, I thought I knew who the killer was. I would jump around from character to character changing my ideas, at one time even coming to the conclusion that White Otter and Quick Fawn were in on it together. I would read one part of the book, and backtrack to another part of the book to see if my theory fit, and sometimes it did, but sometimes it didn't. In any case, if you wanna find out who killed the heiress Red Knot, you have to buy this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really A Murder Mystery Set In Pre-Columbian Maryland 700 Years Ago, September 16, 2005

By 

Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: People of the Mist (Hardcover)

It seems like in every single volume of the "First Americans" series the Gears write, a new genre is explored. In one book it is a quest, in another the tale is one of requested intervention of supernatural forces, still another is a cautionary fable concerning ecology. And in this case, it is a very fine murder mystery. This novel is set around the Chesapeake Bay region roughly a half-dozen generations before Columbus's voyage. It covers the culture of the Algonquians down to the smallest detail and does a fine job of contrasting their value system to that of other aboriginal groups (such as the more pastoral southeastern tribes) and also with showing us a people who dwelled in a region of such remarkable natural plenty that life could be sustained with very little effort.

In this bounteous landscape a murder has been committed. A beautiful teenaged daughter of a powerful chieftain has been found beaten to death in the forest near her home. She had sneaked out in the night for a rendezvous of some sort and never made it back. Amid the descriptions of Algonquin life, funerary and religious rites and crime and punishment, the story weaves outward, until a hermit-like old man, much feared and respected by the villagers, is welcomed into their midst to use his towering intellect to solve the murder of the young woman and prevent the catastrophic consequences her death might have on her people's immediate future.

This is one of the two best books in the First Americans series and even devoid the bonus of its wealth of information on tribal life, it is a spectacular mystery that remains unsolved to the very end of this novel's pages.