Dance of the Thunder Dogs

October 25, 2004
In Mitchell's impressive fifth mystery (after 2003's Sky Woman Falling
) featuring federal investigator Emmett Quanah Parker, the badly injured Parker has returned home to Oklahoma. His Comanche brethren, along with members of neighboring tribes, come together to honor Parker with a dance. A surprise appearance by the U.S. president—who for some odd reason is unnamed—confirms the high esteem in which Parker and his work are held. Days later, however, Parker comes to the aid of his old friend Jerome Crowe and finds himself the object of an intense manhunt. Crowe, who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, had confided to Parker that he was investigating money from land use fees being rerouted to other accounts. When Crowe is murdered, Parker is the prime suspect in the land-use scam as well as Crowe's death. It's a little farfetched that the well-regarded Parker could fall so far from grace, but the longstanding animosity between Parker and federal agent Michael Mangas, another boyhood acquaintance, makes the suspicion more understandable. If the primary villain is a bit too removed from the heart of the story, the endless tumble of breathless events, including Parker's rushing into practice artillery fire on an army base and a truly mind-boggling feat involving train tracks, makes that a very small complaint. Agent, Eleanor Wood at the Spectrum Agency.