The Spirit and the Skull

June 16, 2014
This thought-provoking standalone from Hayes (The Grey Pilgrim) takes the reader back to Paleolithic times. The People are crossing the Bering land bridge, on the threshold of the new country that their goddess, the Mother, has promised them. One band’s trek south is interrupted, however, by murder and hints of witchcraft. It’s up to Raven, the band’s middle-aged Spirit Man, to identify the criminal—a task complicated by his attraction to the most obvious suspect, Down, who’s on the verge of womanhood. Further exacerbating uneasy tribal politics is the direct intervention of the Mother, who insists that the natural balance can be restored only if the murderer is punished immediately. Meanwhile, Raven has disturbing visions of the future, when humans have done their best to defeat nature and he’s just a hollow skull on a lab table. Mildly interesting as a mystery, the novel is more impressive in evoking an alien world when humans lived in tune with their surroundings.

July 15, 2014
The Earth Mother commands a Paleolithic Spirit Man to solve a murder.Raven, a Spirit Man who doubts the existence of spirits, has never been sure of his worth in the role, but at his advanced age, he's acquired enough wisdom to put on a good show. His small tribe is part of The People, who are migrating across the far north of Alaska, following the vast herds of animals that provide for most of their needs. When Tall Pine, one of the tribe's leaders, is found garroted, Raven realizes the killer must be one of their own band. That night, he dreams his skull is in a strange hut, being held in the hands of a strange man; Raven can understand him when he speaks. When another member of the tribe is killed and a third wounded on a hunting trip, the Earth Mother who shares a body with Raven's wife, Willow, who he thought had drowned many years earlier, tells Raven that he must solve the murders. After Raven runs away with Down, the clever daughter of Stone, the tribal head who dislikes Raven but fears his power, the Mother convinces the members of the tribe, who have been hunting the pair, that they will not be healed unless Raven solves the crimes. Meanwhile, Raven continues to have painfully prophetic dreams revealing the horrors that will be wrought on his land by oil exploration in the centuries to come. It's hard for a nonbeliever like Raven to be both a detective and a Spirit Man, reconciling the past and trying to change the future to please a goddess he isn't sure exists.Hayes, best known for his Mad Dog & Englishman series (English Lessons, 2011, etc.), draws on his expertise in archaeology and anthropology in this stand-alone. The mystery is slight, but the portrait of tribal life and the lyrical descriptions of an untouched land are worth the read.

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Starred review from July 1, 2014
Hayes takes a break from his Mad Dog and Englishmem series to bring readers a unique twist on the historical mystery: a Paleolithic detective story. The tale begins with a tribe called the People, led by Raven, an elder and spiritual guide, in the midst of a migration across Alaska to what, centuries hence, will become the continental U.S. The journey is rigorous, but the real trouble comes from within: one of the People is found dead, garroted and with evidence of witchcraft left near his body. Raven must tend to the dead man and perform purification rites to restore harmony to the group. He does his best, but it is difficult because he is secretly agnostic. Strange dreams plague him: a stranger holds his skull, and a woman identifying herself as the Earth Mother tells him that only he can solve the crimes. Matters become still more difficult when Raven finds that the young woman he loves may be the perpetrator. Dealing with themes of primitive religion, social relationships, and even women's rights, this fascinating tale, which adroitly straddles both mystery and fantasy genres, will attract readers from both camps.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)