by W. Michael Gear

Nearly a millennium ago, the Anasazi ruled the cliffs and canyons of New Mexico with a rich, vibrant culture that disappeared as mysteriously as it arose. The link between the 800-year-old murder of an Anasazi holy man and the ritual death of archaeologist Dusty Stewart's beloved mentor drive this rich tapestry of a novel, which moves almost seamlessly between the past and the present to its riveting conclusion. But long before that happens, the reader is drawn into the hunt for a wolf witch that resonates down the centuries, unearthing not only the secrets and relics of an ancient world but also those of Dusty's past--his father's suicide, his mother's desertion, the existence of a sister he never knew, and the reappearance of the woman whose tangled love life set a series of bloody crimes in motion. Archaeologists themselves, the authors bring the past to life with skill and verisimilitude in this terrific story. --Jane Adams