Customer Reviews

Sky Woman Falling (Library Edition)

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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

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.

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

I enjoy this series quite a bit because of the Indian lore--not overdone, but insights into the culture, bits about what is happening with reservations/culture. This particular mystery was outstanding in plot and the method of killing off characters. The suspence factor was also quite good. I'd like to see more character development between the two main characters. There's a bit of a sense of holding off on growing their relationship--and that relationship, along with the emotional growth of the two individually play a big part in why I like these books. Without it, they will become just another mystery so I really hope that future books bring and keep these personality aspects to the forefront.

FBI special agent Anna Turnipseed, a California Modoc, again teams up with Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator Emmett Parker, an Oklahoma Comanche, in a murder case in upstate New York, where friction between Oneida Indians and local whites are high after a court case awarded most of suburban upstate to the Indians.

The victim, Brenda Two Kettles, an outspoken Oneida, fell to her death from the sky - presumably from the airplane she was taking to unstated business in New York City. But time and route implausabilities are only the beginning in this baffling case. As the pair - still caught up in their unfulfilled attraction - explore family and community leads, a picture of conflicts emerges. Conflict between Two Kettles and her impoverished and alcoholic family and tribal leaders. And conflict between angry whites and long-aggrieved Indians.

Mitchell ("Ancient Ones"), a former reservation cop, tells the story from several viewpoints, including a childlike giant who janitors at the Indian museum and harbors some fearful secret. The plot encompasses tribal legends and Anna's prescient dreams as well as ugly racism, modern power struggles and smart police work. An explosive, double-barreled climax and an ingenious resolution top things off. Anna remains an intriguing protagonist in this well-grounded, suspense-filled series.

In not a huge fan of "Indian country" mysteries (as another Amazon reviewer described the genre), but I enjoyed "Sky Woman Falling" well enough. You get a somewhat unusual mystery scenario and learn, quite painlessly, about the many issues facing modern American Indian tribes in the United States. Interestingly, you don't just learn about how the U.S. government relates to Indians these days, but how various Indian tribes feel about and relate to each other. And, so you don't feel totally at sea if you're new to this genre, you also get that great old mystery/thriller staple: friction between federal and local law enforcement. Like a thunderstorm during the climactic showdown, that particular staple never gets old.

Not bad, I figured it out before the end, not a new or surprising plot. However, the aboriginal American detectives are nicely drawn and interesting and I wouldn't mind reading more mysteries with them as the protagonists.

Sky Woman Falling is an unabridged audiobook novel about FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed, a Modoc Indian from California, and Bureau of Indian Affairs investigator Emmett Parker, a Comanche from Oklahoma, are a federal-sponsored team sent to investigate cases in tribal territory. In Sky Woman Falling, the two of them find a murdered elderly Oneida woman with every bone in her body shattered - much like the Sky Woman of the Oneida creation myth. The victim was in the center of a bitter land dispute, and standard procedure places both of them in deadly jeopardy from the fallout of a race war. Deftly written by Kirk Mitchell (a former deputy sheriff on the Paiute-Shoshone Indian reservations including Death Valley), and very ably narrated by Dick Hill (a "Golden Voice" named by AudioFile magazine), Sky Woman Falling is a deeply intricate and suspenseful mystery. 12 CDs, 13 1/2 hours.

Although the plot of this mystery kept me interested, I didn't get a sense of the personalities of the two main characters. I thought that the biggest "secret" of the mystery was fairly easy to guess. The method of murder was ingenious but overcomplicated, and there wasn't really a good explanation why that method was used.

If you're a fan of Indian Country whodunits, Kirk Mitchell is tops. I could go on, but I'd just be repeating myself. This is a terrific read.