Nightland is a great Native American supernatural crime thriller

books:

	• Nightland Louis Owens Red River Books, 2001 - 217 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This mystery is pure heat lightning

from the very first paragraph. Owens's brand of wit and humor blend with his examination of the ranching life in the New Mexico desert to create a highly-charged, complex murder mystery. Set in Indian country, Nightland stakes a strong multicultural claim to the art form of the American Murder Mystery, but it stakes a claim also on the magical realism of American Indian and South American literature. The resulting blend of ghosts and grim realism give the story a dark, mystical, enspirited patina. The pig and dog are hilarious counterpoint to the Cherokee mixedblood heroes. Round out the story with amiable ghosts, a seductive shape-shifter, and some nasty bad guys and you have a bona fide page-turner.

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A Storm Out Of The West

Billy Keene and Will Striker, the main characters of Louis Owens' novel Nightland, are half-breed Cherokees living on failing ranches in New Mexico that their grandparents bought from the Mexican-Americans whose family had a grant from Spain [who took the land from Native Americans in the first place]. They're out hunting deer when a man [who we find out is of Pueblo Indian blood] falls from the sky and ends up skewered on a juniper tree. A suitcase full of money falls with him. Despite misgivings, Billy and Will keep the money. Then all hell breaks loose. Nightland is at heart a thriller, but as with Owens' other novels, it is also a musing on identity. Native American spirituality and the supernatural play a key role in the novel, so if suspension of disbelief is a problem for the potential reader, don't start this book. This is a much faster read than Bone Game and The Sharpest Sight. I found Nightland to be one of the highlights of my summer reading. Oh, and as if my opinion actually counted, I think Richard Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino should buy the rights to Nightland and make a movie. One of the pieces of sad news from this summer was that Louis Owens had taken his own life. He left us five great novels, including Nightland.

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Nightland is a great Native American supernatural crime thriller

Louis Owens has crafted an engrossing story that mixes a not unfamiliar crime thriller with the supernatural world of two half-Cherokee friends, Billy Keene and Will Striker, and Billy's elderly grandfather. When Billy and Will watch a body and suitcase full of cash fall from the sky while out hunting, their entire world changes immediately. After a brief debate, they decide to leave the body where it impaled itself on a pine tree and take off with the $850,000 dollars in cash; but, before they even get out of the forest, they are attacked by a helicopter.

Yes, the beginning seems familiar and the storyline done before; but, the direction this book takes departs from your standard boilerplate crime thriller. Between romance with beautiful strangers and the grandfather involving the spirit world in protecting Billy and Will, this book is a fun romp from beginning to end. And, don't expect a pat ending, as the climax of this story has a twisting and turning path to the last word.

>>>>>>>

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"A well-wrought thriller" says Publisher's Weekly

Owens' third American Indian crime thriller has received praise from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, Booklist and others. The consequences of trying to keep found money (in this case, $850,000 dropped from a drug dealer's plane in remote New Mexico) take ranchers Will Striker and Billy Keene on a wild ride. Enter sex and magical realism, stir, and find yourself reading a "well-wrought thriller capped by a twist-filled climax."

A Great Book!

A body falls from the sky in the dry New Mexico wilds. Two native American ranchers sight the mysterious image and set off to find it. Nearby to the body impaled in the limbs of a tree, they find a suitcase full of money.

This could be their lucky break, or their worst nightmare. They decide to risk keeping the money -- and to face the inevitable consequences . . .

The native American insights are a delight to read. Louis Owens's beautifully crafted prose leaves a last impression.

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reviews: page 1, 2

In the hot, dry New Mexico wilderness, Will and Billy, two half-Cherokee ranchers, discover a corpse and a suitcase containing nearly a million dollars. As the two friends contemplate what to do with the money, they set into motion a series of events that will cost them more than they want to pay.

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