The Witch's Tongue: A Charlie Moon Mystery
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4.2 • 53 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Strange things are happening near Granite Creek, Colorado, all in the space of less than twenty-four hours. A Ute shaman dreams of being buried alive and hears the hooting of an owl, signaling impending death. A man walks into Spirit Canyon and disappears, leaving his battered wife both relieved and devastated. A private museum is burgled. An Apache is arrested for assaulting a police officer. And a sniper takes a shot through an antique store window, wounding the proprietor.
Part-time Ute tribal investigator Charlie Moon would rather be tending to his duties on the Columbine Ranch than playing detective with this puzzling collection of seemingly unrelated events. But when the local police and the FBI-including the beguiling Special Agent Lila McTeague-can't seem to put it all together, Charlie must connect the dots before anyone else dies.
In The Witch's Tongue, James D. Doss's complex and absorbing crime novel set on the Ute reservation in Southern Colorado, Charlie Moon's cleverness and his aunt Daisy Perika's intuition-not to mention the spellbinding story behind this hell of a day-share the limelight with the vibrant details of Native life and custom.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With all the skill and timing of a master magician, Doss unfolds a meticulous plot laced with a delicious sense of humor and set against a vivid southern Colorado setting in his ninth novel (after 2003's Dead Soul) to feature Ute tribal investigator Charlie Moon. A shrewd gambler with an eye for a pretty lady, Charlie is also a successful rancher and an astute businessman, which is bad news for bad guys and competitors. A series of seemingly unrelated episodes a crude museum robbery, a fleeing Apache who attacks a police officer, a Ute who abandons his abused wife and disappears into mysterious Spirit Canyon forms an intricate puzzle that confounds both the tribal police and the FBI. As usual, Charlie's feisty aunt, Daisy Perika, a shaman who melds native beliefs and Catholicism into an idiosyncratic blend, plays an important role. Longtime fans will welcome other familiar supporting cast members, as well as a new romantic interest in the person of an attractive FBI agent. One might quibble that the characters and dialogue occasionally exhibit a wit and polish more appropriate to musical comedy than ordinary discourse ("You are an uncommonly sly fellow, Mr. Moon do you think you can get the copper's name out of me?"), but the sheer entertainment this amusing gem generates is more than enough to compensate for any artificiality.
Customer Reviews
Witch's Tongue
Excellent mystery. Keeps you guessing.