Ancient Ones
Kirk Mitchell
"Well, I've discovered Kirk Mitchell, and I've been reading my way through a number of his mysteries. This is one that I found particularly interesting. Many of his mysteries are set on Indian reservations and deal with some - they're based in some event in recent history that is true, and he uses this situation as a springboard to write mysteries.
This one is interesting because if anybody remembers maybe 15 years ago, a skeleton was discovered in Oregon, and when the skeleton was unearthed, it was carbon dated and it was 9,300 years old. Well, so what? There are plenty of old skeletons around. Well, the mystery about this skeleton is that to the experienced anthropologist's eyes, it appeared to be Caucasian. So what on earth was a Caucasian doing in Oregon 9,300 years ago? Kirk Mitchell took this event and turned it into a mystery novel. He has a mysterious skeleton unearthed somewhere in the Northwest, and the anthropologist and the local Native Americans at odds with each other as to how it should be dealt with.
Kirk Mitchell includes extreme violence, and this novel is no exception; and he oftentimes draws on practices that Native Americans actually employed against their enemies. So his writing is not for the squeamish, nor is it fore anyone who wants to consider Native Americans as noble savages.
I think people interested in physical anthropology and the history of human migration would be very interested in this particular novel. Well, at least a four. It's one of my favorites of the ones he's written, so for me, maybe a five."
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