Sacred Ground

This story stars Jennifer Talldeer who is a private investigator and the granddaughter and apprentice of her grandfather who is a powerful medicine man. She's Osage and Cherokee. While she has many of the usual PI cases, her real joy comes from locating Native American artifacts and returning them to their tribes.

She is hired by an insurance company to determine whether the contractor for a new mall is hiding things that would make him uninsurable. Rod Calligan has a reputation for doing shoddy work. But problems at his latest site which include the explosion of one of his machines the killed four seems to be a step up. And when Native artifacts are discovered on the site, many of his Native American crew are refusing to continue work. show more

Neither Jennifer nor her grandfather were aware of any Native burial site at that location and think that it was a cache that was discovered - a cache Calligan was planning to sell to the highest bidder. But things quickly take a turn to the paranormal when strange things begin to happen. Calligan had discovered the burial place and medicine bag of an evil spirit and the evil lives on and is trying to find a new place in the world.

Meanwhile, Calligan is trying to accomplish an insurance scam by staging a series of "accidents" that will allow him to declare bankruptcy and get out from under a project he knows will be unsuccessful since he's already skimmed all the profit he can. He wants to cast blame for the failure on his Native American crew which brings in Jennifer's old boyfriend David Spotted Horse who has become an Indian Activist.

This was a suspenseful mystery combined with lots of Native American mythology. I enjoyed it a lot. show less

This story stars Jennifer Talldeer who is a private investigator and the granddaughter and apprentice of her grandfather who is a powerful medicine man. She's Osage and Cherokee. While she has many of the usual PI cases, her real joy comes from locating Native American artifacts and returning them to their tribes.

She is hired by an insurance company to determine whether the contractor for a new mall is hiding things that would make him uninsurable. Rod Calligan has a reputation for doing shoddy work. But problems at his latest site which include the explosion of one of his machines the killed four seems to be a step up. And when Native artifacts are discovered on the site, many of his Native American crew are refusing to continue work. show more

Neither Jennifer nor her grandfather were aware of any Native burial site at that location and think that it was a cache that was discovered - a cache Calligan was planning to sell to the highest bidder. But things quickly take a turn to the paranormal when strange things begin to happen. Calligan had discovered the burial place and medicine bag of an evil spirit and the evil lives on and is trying to find a new place in the world.

Meanwhile, Calligan is trying to accomplish an insurance scam by staging a series of "accidents" that will allow him to declare bankruptcy and get out from under a project he knows will be unsuccessful since he's already skimmed all the profit he can. He wants to cast blame for the failure on his Native American crew which brings in Jennifer's old boyfriend David Spotted Horse who has become an Indian Activist.

This was a suspenseful mystery combined with lots of Native American mythology. I enjoyed it a lot. show less

I couldn't finish it. Honestly, I couldn't even get a quarter of the way into it. It has much the same flavor as her urban fantasy Burning Water, but without the engaging characters or convincing magic system. It didn't help that it has a ton of cultural references scattered everywhere to make it feel "hip" and "modern" but now scream "eighties." (Also? If you lived in Tulsa in the eighties I'm sure plenty of the offhand references will feel very true-to-life, but since I didn't, I just found them tedious and obtrusive.) (It was published in 1994 but I'd bet money it was written at least five if not ten years earlier.) The groveling "please forgive me for appropriating your culture" author's note at the back didn't help, either.

In the show more grand scheme of things this is pretty early Lackey, and I wouldn't mind seeing what she did with urban fantasy as a mature author working in a maturing genre, but this? This is not worth reading. show less

A standard detective story with Native American elements thrown in for local color. Action packed, except for some sections where her opinions on wife abuse, racial prejudice, or sexism were flaunted. A clearly defined Evil, and wrapped up ending are on the plus side. I hate to tag this with Native American as she clearly states that she is not basing that part on reality, but the meme is a large part of the story line, and allows her to include other worldly action.
Not a bad book, but I had been saving this on my TBR as a treat and it did not meet my expectations like her SF/fantasy genre does.
ETA: seeing that this book won awards in Teen categories helps me understand the audience of this novel a little better, tho I also expect more show more of writers for that age group also. show less

Jennifer Talldear is a Native American PI in Tulsa. As part of an investigation of insurance fraud she duscovers the desecration of her ancestors burial mounds.
The investigation is started due to a bomb explosion on a building site and complicated by the discovery of Native American bones and artifacts.
Jennifer is an interesting character, and her relationship with her live-in granfather and Medicine Man mentor rings true.
The complete turnaround of the male romantic interest - from arrogant male prig to respectful fellow initiate in the Medicine ways - ring lwess true, and the Evil of the story seems rather predictable and stale - insurance fraud, environmental destruction, avarice, spousal abuse are just some of his sins.

Another old familiar - I've read this easily a dozen times. And still keep coming up with new interesting facets. I like Jennie (though it's a trifle startling sometimes when she's addressed as Jennifer, since that's my name - I don't use Jennie, fortunately). I keep looking for links to Misty's other books/series - specifically, to Jinx High which is also set in Tulsa (well, near it). But I don't think it does link, aside from the general background. Actually, my impression of the area from Jinx High fits the stereotypes that Jennie complains about in Sacred Ground - especially "Oklahoma, the Flat and Treeless". Arrrgh, now I have to reread Jinx High to see if I'm remembering right.

Wonderful look into Native American magic and the strength a woman brings to the tribe.