Bone Game: A Novel / Edition 1

by Louis Owens

Overview

Bone Game is a murder mystery on a grand scale. Cole McCurtain, a mixed-blood Indian professor of Indian Studies at Santa Cruz, California, is haunted by dreams dating back to events of Spanish California. Images of a Spanish priest murdered in 1812, a rearing grizzly bear, and a black-and-white painted Indian who offers bones in his extended hands come at a time when dismembered pieces of a young woman are washing ashore in 1993. The dreams become increasingly urgent as the murders become more frequent, and Cole’s family and friends gather to help-including Choctaw relatives who travel west from Mississippi because "this story’s so big, Cole sees only a little bit of it."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900806128411
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	09/28/1996
Series:	American Indian Literature Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

Louis Owens, who is of Choctaw-Cherokee-Irish descent, is Professor of English at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of several books, including Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel and the novels The Sharpest Sight and Bone Game, all published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

Table of Contents

What People are Saying About This

James Welch

Bone Game will take you by the throat and shake you up some.

Editorial Reviews

Owens, who teaches English at the University of New Mexico, takes a second turn at fiction in this sequel to The Sharpest Sight, a tense blend of fantasy and mystery centering on American Indian lore. Relying on his own Choctaw heritage, the author tells the story of Cole McCurtain, whose life is coming apart at the seams. Cole no longer enjoys teaching American Indian Studies at UC-Santa Cruz. He drinks a lot, eats little and sorely misses his daughter, who's living with his divorced wife (to whom he owes substantial alimony). To top it off, he can't sleep because his dreams are haunted by images of a mysterious, malevolent Indian gambler. Matters turn dramatically worse when someone starts murdering female students. Are the killings somehow related to Cole's nightmares? To his dismay, it appears that it is his destiny to face the gambler and to solve the slayings. At first he is aided by his only friend at Santa Cruz, a transvestite Navajo. But soon Cole's daughter arrives, then his Choctaw family, and together they confront a centuries-old evil force that was unleashed by Spanish missionaries' cruel treatment of Native Americans. Owens expertly mixes genres and blends in generous amounts of Native American history. To his credit, he also leavens his grim but gripping tale with substantial humor. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Cole McCurtain, of Choctaw-Cherokee-Irish descent, is a professor of English at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Lately he's been dreaming of events that happened when the Spanish settled in Santa Cruz way back when. In the dreams, he plays the part of both the sadistic Spanish priest and his tortured Indian victim. At the same time, coeds are disappearing from campus, their headless bodies washing up on the shore. Other bodies are also found, unmutilated and dead of a single gun shot. Cole is finding bear tracks in his yard. Could all these events be related? Cole's father, Uncle Luther, and friend Onatima, whom readers may remember from The Sharpest Sight (LJ 1/92), come to help Cole sort it all out. Novelist/critic Owens (Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel, LJ 11/15/92) provides a great cast of characters and a fascinating plot that make this a recommended book for general readers.-Debbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati Technical Coll.

Library Journal

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