THE SPIRIT CALLER

A fourth adventure for Molly Bearpaw (Seven Black Stones, 1995, etc.), recently appointed Major Crimes Investigator for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, who's soon faced with a puzzle worthy of the hefty title. Talia Wind, whose niece Natalie works in Molly's office, has been found strangled, just outside the old Native American Research Library near Tahlequah. Talia, a self- proclaimed seeress, and husband Dell Greer had arrived in Eagle Rock from California a year ago, guided by Talia's channeler, and had bought land for their trailer from tribal leader Agasuyed Beaver. By year's end, Talia and Dell were divorced, and Talia, with her New Age views, meditation groups, and growing influence on women in the community, had made an enemy of Agasuyed and others as well. Talia's mission at the library, in the dead of night, had been to exorcise the ghosts rumored to inhabit the place. Molly, meantime, must investigate the case with little help from a hostile Sheriff while coping with meeting the father who'd left when she was four, unheard from all those years. Despite it all, Molly finds the murderer, barely escaping with her life in the process. Tidily plotted and mildly entertaining, with special appeal to aficionados of Native American lore. (Regional author tour)