Coyote Blue

February 28, 1994
Sam Hunter, the hero of Moore's raucous new novel, is the perfect insurance salesman: a complete chameleon who can be all things to all people, sizing up the ideal pitch to close any deal or make any woman. Living on the beach in Santa Barbara, Calif., Sam has all the accoutrements of the successful yuppie. His true identity--as Samson Hunts Alone, a full-blooded Crow Indian who fled his reservation and his heritage at age 15 after killing a policeman--is hidden and all but forgotten. Then one day, the Native American trickster figure Coyote enters Sam's life, with the apparent intention of destroying it piece by piece. Coyote's arrival coincides with Sam's involvement with Calliope Kincaid, an uneducated single mother whose hippie lifestyle is a throwback to the 1960s. When Calliope's biker ex-boyfriend kidnaps their baby, Coyote and Sam--against Sam's better judgment--set out in pursuit. The farther Sam travels from his life in the city, the closer he comes to finding himself. As in his previous novel, Practical De mon keep ing , Moore plays the supernatural and numinous for laughs, making even the most ludicrous events somehow believable with his breezy writing style. Only a consistent strain of misogyny mars this otherwise funny and entertaining romp. 50,000 first printing.

January 1, 1994
"There ain't no cure for Coyote Blue," writes Moore ( Practical Demonkeeping, LJ 1/92) to explain the mystifying and outrageous chain of events that alters Sam Hunter's life forever. As a teenager, Samson Hunts Alone runs away from the Crow Reservation to avoid standing trial for murder. Twenty years later he has changed his name, become a partner in a successful insurance agency, and all but forgotten his Indian upbringing. Coyote, an ancient Indian god known as a trickster by the Crow, is determined that it is time for Sam to fulfill his destiny as storyteller for his tribe. To that end, Coyote leads Sam on a merry chase--interfering in business, disturbing the neighbors, introducing love, and inciting a motorcycle gang to riot, all in a fantastic plot to lead Sam home. This novel is at once irreverent, spiritual, and wonderfully fresh in approach. An absolute must for adults and mature teens alike.-- Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale