SACRED GROUND

Contemporary mystery/fantasy wherein Lackey (The Black Gryphon, etc.) combines an insurance-fraud investigation with Native American magic. Jennie Talldeer, an Oklahoman Osage Indian and the granddaughter of a powerful medicine man, is a respected shaman-in- training in her own right—as well as a successful private investigator; in her spare time she locates stolen Indian artifacts and returns them to their rightful owners. Her current client is an insurance company that has hired her to investigate suspicious goings-on at a nearby mall development: Indian artifacts have turned up (but the flood plain site is unlikely to be a genuine burial ground), and an exploding bulldozer has killed several workers (for which developer Rod Calligan blames Indian activists). Jennie learns that Calligan has obtained, and been possessed by, the medicine bundle of a supremely dangerous spirit, the Evil One. Another problem is posed by old flame and Indian activist David Spotted Horse's hostility—at least until David is persuaded that Jennie's magic abilities are real. Soon the Osage spirits, awakened and enraged by Calligan's meddling, begin to threaten innocent bystanders. Eventually, there will be a showdown battle on the spirit plane. Hard-working and impressively researched, though with one- dimensional characters and an unexceptionable but ploddingly right- on good vs. evil clash.