A serial-killer story with a difference. White men in Seattle are being stabbed to death and scalped, with a pair of crossed feathers left as a calling card. Naturally, a Native American culprit is suspected, and dubbed the Indian Killer, although others believe the killer could be white, and dropping clues to mislead.
It's also the story of John Smith, an Indian boy, born on a reservation to a fourteen-year-old girl, but adopted at birth by a white couple, who finds it difficult to adapt to the society onto which he has been grafted.
Other Indians, wannabe Indians and bigoted white rednecks complete the cast. Racial hatred soon boils over as the killings continue, and mob violence accelerates, until a state of near race war is reached on the streets of Seattle. The author, a Native American himself, seems to be using the book to deliver his views on the current position of the Indian in the USA, as well as presenting some historical pointers to the cause of the current situation.
What could be said to be rather worrying about the book is that it seems, in places, to be preaching for violent revolt by Native Americans, justifying this action as retaliation for the genocide and atrocities against the Indian nations over the last five-hundred years, since the invasion of their country by Europeans.
Although the conclusion of the story is somewhat vague, in that the identity of the killer is uncertain, this is a powerful book, well-written, and with strong characterisations, which certainly gives one pause for thought.
