5The howling Coyote, messenger of the dwarf master pitukupf and dancing balls of fire, the bruja. These are the omens that appear to the aged Ute shaman Daisy Perika and her shepherd friend Nahum Yaciiti. Omens signaling the work of the Dark One among the matukach, the white people in this southwestern corner of Colorado. The brutal, late-night murder of graduate student Priscilla Song in her physics laboratory is Chief Scott Parris's first homicide case since arriving from Chicago three years earlier. At first it looks open-and-shut, but loose ends quickly unravel to produce several possible suspects with equally pressing motives. With the help of lovely journalist Anne Foster and Daisy Perika, Parris just may be able to catch the killer before he selects another victim. First novelist James D. Doss juxtaposes two extremes of southwestern life to create a dramatic and moving story that is much more than simply a murder mystery. The people in these disparate worlds mingle with, give to, and take from one another. The reader is caught up in not only the discoveries of hard science, but what the old Shaman can see and effect when she sings.