Ancient Enemy (Howard Moon Deer Mysteries)

Rating:
Summary: 4.5 stars. Westbrook's writing improves Moon Deer
Review: In the 4th installment of Mr. Westbrook's fictional San Geronimo detective series, much more attention is given to the novels namesake, Howard Moon Deer.

Moon Deer is not your typical Native American. He left his roots long ago to lead more of the white man's life, after realizing he wanted more than what the reservation could offer. He has a thing for modern coffee latte's, classical music, food wraps, attractive women and other modern conveniences. However, he still hasn't found his niche in life, and has returned to the New Mexican town of San Geronimo, where in order to make ends meet has hired on to as the assistant to ex-San Francisco cop Jack Wilder. Jack was blinded while on the job back in California, and has since established a new life with his wife in San Geronimo, where he has opened his detective agency, Wilder & Associate.

While on a routine and boring stakeout behind a local Chinese deli, Howie witnesses a bizarre act. Someone has driven down the dark alley late at night, dumped something in a garbage bin and left Howie's car the recipient of a hit and run. When Howie's initial shock wears off he discovers a gruesome find in the dumpster, a severed head, but that's not all, it appears as if it has been cooked!

Here begins a mystery that soon engulfs the small town. Who was driving the car? Whose head was discovered and where is the body? And more importantly, why does the coroner believe the victim was the result of cannibalism, a fear that riles the locals in a frenzy as this seems to be a copy cat ritual. A ritual that dates back over a thousand years when the Anazazi Indians took up residence in the surrounding areas. Added to that, it appears that an English professor who was seen in the area has just disappeared.

Enter D.T., a young beautiful Indian anthropologist girl who stutters but seems to have captured Howie's fancy. But Howie soon discovers D.T. is not always telling the truth, and seems to know more about the recent events than she is leading on to. What is D.T. connection to the missing Englishman?

Jack Wilder and Howie are hired by one of the local Indian factions to look after D.T. and a recently discovered archeological find in the nearby mountains. The discovered site seems to have fueled a fire between the local Indian factions, and don't really want the white man involved. It seems bones have been un-earthed and key clues left behind that may once and for all settle the argument if the Anazazi were once cannibals are at sake.

But when another Indian boy shows up at Howie's front door shot, he has only minutes to give Moon Deer an unidentifiable artifact to hide before he dies.

Now Howie, D.T., the local War Chief and his shady companions must ascend the mountain on horseback and secure the site. But again, not everything as it seems and Howie soon suspects everyone has his or her own agenda. Clearly D.T. is lying about something, as is the War Chief. Howie realizes that he may be over his head on this one and soon he is on the run to save his life when people start revealing their true colors.

The climax takes us back into town, where Wilder and his wife Emma, doing their own detective work uncover some interesting information about all the players and make another discovery that surprises the reader. What was the artifact that everyone seems to be clamoring for back at Howie' place?

Overall, Ancient Enemy was a more solid read than Red Moon. The author gave a lot of attention to Moon Deer, and made all the characters believable both in description and motivation. I felt the story always moved forward, and there was really no lack in action and development. It was also nice to see the author include more Native American lore that was missing from Red Moon, and I think the reader will notice that this novel was put together very nicely as compared to previous novels in this series. Looking forward to more.

Rating:
Summary: Full of gimmicks but it still works!
Review: Synopsis:

This is part of a series of novels about Howard Moon Deer, a highly-educated Souix Indian who is living in Northern Arizona and helping Jack Wilbur, a blind ex-police chief from San Francisco run a detective agency near the Pueblo Indians. By th way, Howard Moon Deer knows absolutely nothing about being a detective. They run across a couple of murders involving the Pueblos and an ancient Anasazi town and human remains that may have the key to their disappearance centuries ago. The title refers to the Navajo's name for the Anasazi.

My review:

Sound gimmicky? Sound like a bad detective show like Jake and the Fat Man or Remington Steele? Sure it does, but it still works. Mostly it works because Howard Moon Deer is as much of a fish out of water as the reader are. Although he is a Native American the Souix are not like the Arizona Indians at all - plus, he has pretty much abandoned his Indian ancestry in search of a doctorate in literature. So, the characters are interesting, the books stand alone very well since this is my first one but it is the third in the series. The anthropology of the Anasazi and the Pueblos made the book very interesting for me.

I give this book an "A-"