Sky Woman Falling [Hardcover]

Kirk Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2003

Whenever the Feds need help in the tribal territories, they send in FBI special agent Anna Turnipseed, a Modoc Indian, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator Emmett Parker, a Comanche. "A memorable literary pair,"* Anna and Emmett have seen some strange cases, but this one may be the oddest one yet...

Brenda Two Kettles, an elder of the Oneida Tribe, has been found dead in a cornfield, every major bone in her body shattered. She seems to have fallen from the sky, like Sky Woman of the Oneida creation myth. But when Anna and Emmett discover that Brenda was at the center of a bitter land dispute between Native Americans and white settlers, the team must figure out where myth ends-and a deadly reality begins...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mitchell combines a great story line with an authentic Native-American background in his flawless fourth mystery (after 2001's The Ancient Ones) to feature FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed, a Modoc, and Bureau of Indian Affairs investigator Emmett Parker, a Comanche. When the body of Brenda Two Kettles turns up in a frozen field near her New York reservation, her severe injuries leave no doubt that she fell from the sky, just like Sky Woman in the Oneida story of creation. Enter the Feds' Indian hunting party, Turnipseed and Parker. The Oneida nation's 1985 win in a Supreme Court decision has still not succeeded in the return of their rightful ownership of 270,000 acres now in the hands of about 60,000 white people. Finding an answer seems impossible, though many forces are at work to reach a peaceful resolution. Yet how does an Oneida Indian take a commercial airliner and end up falling to her death? Anna becomes increasingly aware that the solution is somehow connected to the Oneidas' creation story. As the body count rises, she and her almost-lover, Emmett, realize they have no time to work on their damaged personal lives. As a former deputy on the Paiute-Shoshone Indian reservations in California, the author knows the real issues facing Native Americans today. Packed with suspense and action, this intricate tale delivers a conclusion that is nothing short of brilliant.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

An authentic Native American background...[and] a conclusion that is nothing short of brilliant. (Publishers Weekly, starred review) Armchair anthropologists and fans of Tony Hillerman's fiction will appreciate this book. (Post & Courier, Charleston) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1 edition (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425191915
• ISBN-13: 978-0425191910
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,123,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly consistent with Iroquois politics/culture, January 16, 2004

By 

Doug George-Kanentiio (Oneida Territory, Haudenosaunee Confederacy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sky Woman Falling (Hardcover)

Sky Woman Falling ranks with Tony Hillerman's best books in its stunningly accurate portrayal of contemporary Iroquois society. He takes a very complex situation, the gambling crisis which has ripped apart the Iroquois, and written a novel which describes not only the internal tensions but the tragic results stemming from this latest assault upon the Six Nations. His command of Haudenosaunee cosmology, spirituality and symbolism is truly unique for a non-Native novelist. There is nothing patronizing is this book. The principals in Sky Woman Falling are Native investigators as are the culprits. He correctly portrays the Native gambling advocates as complex humans seduced, and then corrupted, by casino gambling. Mitchell obviously used a lot of shoe leather travelling around central New York; his descriptions of the land and people are without parallel. The story takes place among the Oneidas but could have just as easily described events among the Seneca, Onondaga or Mohawk. As a Mohawk writer I applaud this book and strongly urge anyone who has an interest in the Iroquois to read it and pass it along to your friends. It would make a great film.
Doug George-Kanentiio
Akwesasane Mohawk residing on Oneida Territory

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another excellent Parker and Turnipseed outing, November 29, 2003

By 

Sondra Ward (Knightdale, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sky Woman Falling (Hardcover)

Woven around the good and bad influences of an Indian casino in New York State and the politics involved, Emmett Parker and Anna Turnipseed find themselves in the middle of the Oneida culture and legends. Fast-moving, and inhabited with people you like and hate, this fourth episode featuring Parker/Turnipseed is excellent. Descriptions of the land and characters are evocative; the path to solving the death that took them to Syracuse and Oneida lands twisted and strewn with obstacles. This work is excellent (can't use that word enough) to the very last page.

If this is your first Kirk Mitchell novel, you owe it to yourself to read the preceding three. They just get better.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exciting police procedural, November 6, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sky Woman Falling (Hardcover)

Commence 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 know 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