The Witch S Tongue A Charlie Moon Mystery

Strange things are happening near Granite Creek, Colorado, all in the space of less than twenty-four hours. A Ute shaman dreams of being buried alive and hears the hooting of an owl, signaling impending death. A man walks into Spirit Canyon and disappears, leaving his battered wife both relieved and devastated. A private museum is burgled. An Apache is arrested for assaulting a police officer. And a sniper takes a shot through an antique store window, wounding the proprietor. Part-time Ute tribal investigator Charlie Moon would rather be tending to his duties on the Columbine Ranch than playing detective with this puzzling collection of seemingly unrelated events. But when the local police and the FBI-including the beguiling Special Agent Lila McTeague-can't seem to put it all together, Charlie must connect the dots before anyone else dies. In The Witch's Tongue, James D. Doss's complex and absorbing crime novel set on the Ute reservation in Southern Colorado, Charlie Moon's cleverness and his aunt Daisy Perika's intuition-not to mention the spellbinding story behind this hell of a day-share the limelight with the vibrant details of Native life and custom.

Ute shaman Daisy Perika is no stranger to eerie dreams, but when she has a nightmare, lives could be at stake. Convinced that her visions of a wisp-thin girl with blood dripping from her hands are omens, the old woman calls on her nephew, Charlie Moon. Moon, a part-time tribal investigator and full-time Colorado rancher, is skeptical, but he knows better than to dismiss his quarrelsome aunt too quickly. After all, she has been right before. But what can he do? Although Daisy can see what's left of a dying man's face, she can't get a clear look at the girl's. Without that, Moon doesn't have anything to go on. Then he gets a call about a very real murder. Sarah Frank, an Ute-Papago orphan and daughter of Moon's childhood friend, was spotted standing over the battered body with blood on her hands. Moon and FBI Special Agent Lila Mae McTeague cross the border to investigate, but they're too late. Not only has little Sarah vanished with a one-of-a-kind family heirloom, but Moon and McTeague aren't the only ones on her trail. Off the reservation and across states lines, James D. Doss's clever mystery finds Moon on the law enforcement side of the investigation and his aunt Daisy decidedly on the other.

Charlie Moon is no stranger to the mysterious ways of the spirit world. But why is prize livestock being ritualistically butchered in the Canyon of the Spirit? That's what Granite Creek's chief of police Scott Parish wants to find out...before human blood begins to spill. Enter Moon's aunt and aging Ute shaman Daisy Perika. For only she who communes with the ancient spirits can truly comprehend the events that have happened upon Native American lands—and the even greater evil that is yet to be unleashed... In The Shaman Laughs, James D. Doss delivers another fascinating Charlie Moon mystery.

"In Ogilvie, Tallant & Moon, best-selling author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro introduces San Francisco attorney Charlie Moon, who happens to be an Ojibwa shaman. He's got his lawbooks and a special gift for detection to make his cases for him but when things go wrong, it's the way of his ancestors that show hime the path. In this first case, the business of big pharmaceuticals is tackled and they know how to use drugs wisely -- and painfully. Charlie is going to need all of the ritualistic mojo he can summon."--Ramble House website.

A lawman with a hardy appetite for life and an unshakable faith in the explicable, Southern Ute Acting Chief of Police Charlie Moon is not prepared to accept a purely supernatural explanation for the recent strange events of April 1. Nevertheless, something carried off Tommy Tonompicket and his unlikely drinking companion, research scientist William Pizinski, in the black chill of the Colorado night. And something ripped the head off a man outside a lonely cabin in the mountains...and left two large, fanglike punctures in his chest. And though Charlie's eccentric old aunt, the shaman Daisy Perika, claims the gargantuan avenging arachnid Grandmother Spider has risen up from the depths of Navajo Lake, the hulking, good-natured tribal policeman feels in his gut that this is murder, pure if not simple, and most probably by human hands.

One dead body. One century-old haunted opera house. One zombie musical. One pissed-off detective. Will Violet “Spooky” Parker keep her tail out of trouble or will she end up as one of Deadwood’s walking dead?

Charlie Moon, Ute rancher and investigator, isn't afraid to throw the dice even when a man's life is at stake, but when that man is betting against himself and Moon's ability to save him, that makes for some awfully high stakes. Hard times have come to Colorado, and Moon's ranch is feeling the pinch. Investor Samuel Reed has never had that problem. He seems to have a special intuition when it comes to picking stocks and claims to be able to remember the future, which gives him quite a leg up on Wall Street. So it's no surprise that Reed is confident when he makes a wager with Moon's best friend, Granite City Chief of Police Scott Parish, that Parish can't keep him alive. Even when Reed doesn't give them any details beyond the date and time of his impending demise, that's more than enough information for Moon who wants in on the action and is just as confident that he's well on the way to saving his ranch. But Moon's best plans go awry when instead of one homicide on his hands, he ends up with two. James D. Doss infuses the pages of A Dead Man's Tale, the fifteenth in his popular series, with his potent brand of high spirits and homespun humor that has made him a favorite among mystery readers.