Native Mystery

Legends that endured for centuries, endure for a reason. In the wilderness of Southeastern Alaska, the Kushtaka is one such legend. Known as the Land-Otter Man among the Tlingit Indians, the Kushtaka are shape-shifting, time bending, mythical creatures capable of taking your deepest fears and turning them into a nightmarish reality.

Maggie Tall Bear Sloan, half Irish, half Yurok, and 100 percent gutsy, is a retired criminologist who shape-shifts into the Pukkekwerek, the Yurok nation’s monster-killing raven. After she brings down a cannibalistic child murderer possessed by a manitou, Maggie, and her lover, Jake Lubbock, a former sheriff, move from the mountains in Northern California to a desert town in Southern California. All is well for Maggie and Jake until the local sheriff shows them photos of a dentist, his wife, and teenage son, roasted over separate fires on spits, their flesh cannibalized.

For FBI Agent Zack Tolliver, a pleasure trip to the Central Coast of California turns into dangerous business when he becomes immersed in a case involving drug smuggling, rival cartels, murder, and an ancient myth. The clues add up, the victims pile up, the mystery grows, the danger deepens.

At the reservation to make final arrangements for her upcoming wedding, potter Shandra Higheagle gets caught up in the murder of a young woman about to turn her life around. Having no jurisdiction on the reservation, Detective Ryan Greer pulls in favors from friends in the FBI to make sure there is no delay in their wedding.

The dead body of an illicit neighbor and an old necklace sends potter Shandra Higheagle on a chase to find a murderer. Visions from her dead grandmother reveal Shandra is on the right path, but the woods are full of obstacles - deadly ones. Detective Ryan Greer believes Shandra’s dreams will help solve the mystery, but he also knows the curious potter could get herself killed. He’s determined that won’t happen.

Shandra Higheagle is digging up clay for her renowned pottery when she scoops up a boot attached to a skeleton. She calls in Weippe County detective Ryan Greer. The body is decades old and discovered to be Shandra’s employee’s old flame. Ryan immediately pegs Shandra’s employee for the murderer, but Shandra knows in her heart that the woman everyone calls Crazy Lil couldn’t have killed anyone, let alone a man she loved.

A runaway bride, murder, and arson have Shandra Higheagle sleuthing again. Sorting through the debris of her best friend’s childhood, Shandra believes she must solve the murder before her friend becomes the next victim. Stumbling upon a dead body, Detective Ryan Greer is determined to bring the killer to justice before Shandra becomes too entangled in her friend’s dysfunctional past. He could be too late. Her deceased grandmother has already visited her dreams, putting Shandra in the middle of his investigation and danger.

In Agatha Christie’s short story “The Kidnapped Prime Minister”, Poirot investigates the mysterious disappearance of the British prime minister during wartime. Apparently carjacked on the way to a peace conference, Poirot must overcome subterfuge and misdirection to solve the mystery.

Secrets...scandal...murder...An autistic boy and his brother need potter Shandra Higheagle’s help when a teacher’s body is found after a confrontation with the older brother. Shandra knows the boy is innocent. Digging into the teacher’s life, she and Ryan turn up scandal. Detective Ryan Greer has believed in Shandra’s dreams in the past, but she can’t always be right. When his investigation uncovers a principal on the take, females being harassed, and parents kept in the dark, he discovers more suspects than the brothers.

In Agatha Christie’s short story “The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim”, to win a bet with Inspector Japp, Poirot solves the mysterious robbery and disappearance of a banker from his home, all without leaving his seat. Is the culprit the businessman Mr. Davenheim was supposed to meet? Or is the situation more complicated?

In Agatha Christie’s short story “The Million Dollar Bond Robbery”, Poirot must prove the innocence of a young bank manager who has had a million dollars in bonds stolen from him while on a boat voyage to New York. Could it be one of his superiors? And why were the bonds being sold in New York before his ship arrived?

Shandra Higheagle is asked to juror an art exhibition on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. After an altercation at the exhibition, the chairwoman of the event, Shandra’s friend, arrives home with torn clothes, scratches, and stating she tried to save an angry artist who fell over a cliff. Shandra and Ryan begin piecing together information to figure out if the friend did try to save the artist, or helped him over the edge.

More than a year has passed since shaman John Running Deer and his equally gifted granddaughter, Evelyn Sherman, battled Brigindo and Teutates’ other three siblings in Cherokee, North Carolina. At the time, John and Evelyn prayed this would be it for dealing with violent ancient entities that supersede the normal realm of ghosts and other mischievous spirits. They naively equated the Hobbs family’s return to peaceful lives in Colorado as the end of their own misadventures with the supernatural. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

James "Orlando" Sherwood has resurrected the old Shadow Dance religion, having his followers dance for days at a time for the promise of an Indian paradise. And when lawyer Vicky Holden's estranged husband is found murdered, Father John O'Malley believes that Orlando has more to do with it than he lets on. But to get the proof, Father John and Vicky Holden will have to learn to dance to his music.

Machu Picchu is one of South America's best tourist spots, and the ruins have even been voted one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. But even though Machu Picchu is now the best known of all Incan ruins, its function in Incan civilization is still not clear. Some have speculated that it was an outpost or a frontier citadel, while others believe it to be a sanctuary or a work center for women. Still others suggest that it was a ceremonial center or perhaps even the last refuge of the Incas after the Spanish conquest.

Someone has left three dead Shoshones on an historic battlefield, positioned to mimic the bodies of those Arapahos killed in the slaughter. Frankie Montana, attorney Vicky Holden's latest client, is a frequent guest of the reservation's holding cells, and after a recent heated encounter with the three dead men, is the number one suspect in their deaths. But despite his faults, Vicky doesn't believe he is capable of murder.

Dela Alvaro is a disabled veteran who grew up on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation. When an IED in Iraq ended her military career, she came home to reassess her life and landed a job in security at the Indian run casino on the reservation. Not even a year into being the assistant to the head of security, Dela is promoted on a trial basis. When one of the casino employees is found stabbed and stuffed in a laundry chute, she knows she can kiss head of security goodbye if she doesn’t find the killer before the media gets hold of the story.

The nightmares never cease. Ever since I was a child I have struggled to deal with them. Each night a different horror takes shape, and I see it as if I was there. I wake from these terrifying dreams of another world in which I am running from the strangest visions of evil. Visions that can only exist in nightmares, yet they are all too real to me. Christian Sands is an FBI agent with a unique ability. When his ViCAP unit takes on another serial killer investigation, they soon find themselves in deeper than they bargained for. The killer seems to be ahead of them at every turn.

Lieutenant John Patchen has come to Montana to persuade Chappie Plaquemines, his former gunnery sergeant in Iraq and the son of Gabriel Du Pré's girlfriend, to accept the Navy Cross. First, however, Du Pré and Patchen must find the wounded marine, who was last seen drinking heavily in the Toussaint Saloon. They locate him soon enough, disheveled and stinking of stale booze, but a sobering visit to a medicine man's sweat lodge reveals a much greater mystery.

In an air-conditioned university office, a man lies dead, brutally bludgeoned. A hundred miles away, in the high, arid New Mexico mountain country that Sheriff Cliff Lansing is sworn to protect, an animal is devastating ranchers' livestock, and is now turning to human prey.... For Lansing, the two cases are linked. The murder victim was part of an archaeological dig, and a local Indian believes that the animal killings have been unleashed by the excavations.