Legacy of Masks (Paperback)

~ Sallie Bissell (Author) "The Confederate stood on the seventy-first of the one hundred and five concrete steps that led from Hartsville's Main Street to the Pisgah County Courthouse..." (more)
Key Phrases: bear mask, softball practice, Coach Keener, Bethany Daws, Mary Crow (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former Atlanta prosecutor Mary Crow returns home to Pisgah County, N.C., to reunite with her on-again, off-again lover, Jonathan Walkingstick, in her fourth adventure (after Call the Devil by His Oldest Name). Luckily for her, Jonathan still carries a torch ("He wanted to touch her, wanted to kiss her, wanted to take her in his arms and never let her go"). After she's unable to land a job in any local legal outfit, Mary turns free agent, with her first client being the prince of Pisgah County, Deke Keener. Church deacon, girl's softball team coach and president of Keener Construction, Deke's also a longtime child abuser and cold-blooded killer. When high schooler Bethany Daws has her head smashed in with an Indian hatchet, everyone assumes her Cherokee boyfriend, Ridge Standingdeer, did it. Mary, who doesn't buy it, helps Ridge out. Meanwhile, Deke is planning his next molestation and trying to locate some incriminating tapes that Bethany had been threatening to use against him. It seems that Ridge is doomed until a mysterious spiritual savior arrives. Mary has all the right stuff for a gutsy heroine, and Deke is one of the foulest sexual predators in recent memory, but strong romance elements intrude on the action and threaten to overshadow the mystery. Those who prefer their genres served on separate platters should look elsewhere.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

When lawyer Mary Crow returns to her hometown in Pisgah County, North Carolina, it feels right to be back in Cherokee country. After a stint as a hotshot prosecutor in Atlanta and a failed romance, she returns home, hoping to land a job in the DA's office; but she quickly learns that no one wants to hire a Cherokee--especially not a Cherokee who, in an infamous incident from her past, killed the corrupt yet beloved former county sheriff. So she hangs out her own shingle and begins to investigate the murder of teenager Bethany Daws--found with a Cherokee tomahawk in her head. Suspicion immediately falls on the victim's boyfriend, Ridge Standingdeer, giving Mary another look at the ugly face of bigotry. Meanwhile, the affable girls' softball coach plots to get his hands (literally) on an 11-year-old player. A grim but well-written adventure that skillfully interweaves Cherokee lore and human nature at its best and worst. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (March 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553802798
• ISBN-13: 978-0553802795
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,521,720 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cherokee mysticism, May 7, 2005

By	Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

High powered ADA Mary Crowe returns to her home town in North Carolina, hoping to rekindle her romance with old love Jonathan Walkingstick, part Cherokee and total hunk, who is now a widower with a small child. As Mary is half Cherokee herself, old prejudices re emerge and when she sets up a law office in the town, the only offer of work comes from an old classmate, Deke Keener who is now the wealthiest man in town. Unknown to everyone, except his victims, Keener is a pedophile who preys upon the prepubescent daughters of his employees. He ensures the silence of these little girls by threatening to dismiss their fathers, leaving them homeless. Deke drives one girl, Bethany, over the edge by threatening to molest her younger sister, Kayla, as she herself has matured too much to suit his warped needs. Bethany's boyfriend, Ridge Standingdeer, a young Cherokee who is a member of a mystical section of the tribe called Ani Zaguhi, has hidden tapes made by Bethany as she was being molested, and when Bethany is brutally murdered,Deke encourages the police to arrest Ridge, calling him a witch and inciting the locals to villify him, using racial prejudice to urge them on. Mary agrees to act as defence lawyer for Ridge and with the unsought help of Kayla and Avis who is about to become Deke's next victim, works to unmask him and to reveal him as an unspeakable criminal. Although pedophilia and racial abuse are not pleasant subjects, Sallie Bissell writes a very readable story and I feel that more to come, featuring Mary Crowe in her new role as a defence attorney.

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the last one, April 5, 2005

By	Tracy L. (USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

This book is a bit of a let down. The main problem I have with it is that there are pages and pages of absolutely nothing happening. This book could have been shortened by about 80 pages. Mary Crow is an interesting character, but really doesn't do anything until the last 40 pages of the book. Her relationship with Jonathan is nothing more than an afterthought. The most interesting characters in the story are the two little girls who figure out what's going on before anyone else does, and they began to annoy me after awhile. Had high hopes for this one, but it just didn't cut it.

4.0 out of 5 stars fine Mary Crow who-done-it, March 30, 2005

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Mary Crow has returned to Hartsville before (see IN THE FOREST OF HARM), but this time she is serious about staying. She broke with her anthropologist boyfriend Gabe while they were in Peru and quit her job as an ADA to seek work as a prosecutor or in a law firm in the North Carolina Mountains. No offer has come as no one believes that "Killer Crow" will remain here after seventeen years in Atlanta; so she opens up her own office.

Her first major case will not endear Mary with the bigwigs. The police suspect Ridge Standingdeer killed his girlfriend Bethany Daws. Mary believes her client is innocent, but her only help comes from two preadolescents including Kayla the sister of the victim. Meanwhile sexual predator Deke Keener, the wealthiest person in the country with major political ties due to his construction company, targets Kayla as his next squeeze, but needs to keep Mary occupied perhaps with some of his legal business.

The fourth Mary Crow tale returns her to her hometown where with exception of Kayla and hunk Jonathan Walkingstick no one wants her to stay. Her efforts to obtain work are met with resistance because of her stellar reputation making her seem over-skilled and the fact that she did kill the corrupt sheriff on a previous visit; even the native tribe rejects her offer of council. The who-done-it is not quite as thrilling as Crow's previous efforts, but the audience will appreciate her cat and mouse game with this clever predator who uses money, contacts, and racism to hide his being a killing pedophile.

Harriet Klausner