Land of Echoes

January 5, 2004
Hecht takes another step toward his grand goal of setting a supernatural mystery in every U.S. state with this second in the Cree Black series. City of Masks
, the well-received first installment, featured a haunted mansion in New Orleans; here, Hecht crafts a novel of possession set in Tony Hillerman territory, the sun-baked high desert mesas of western New Mexico. Fifteen-year-old Tommy Keeday, a student at a boarding school for gifted American Indians, has bizarre seizures with no physical explanation. The local Navajos think the boy is possessed by a chindi
, an ancestral spirit bent on seizing control of his tormented body. Parapsychologist and natural empath Lucretia "Cree" Black, one of a three-person team of high-tech ghost hunters, is called in to solve the mystery of the boy's supernatural illness. Cree explains a ghost as "fragments of a once-living human personality that somehow keep manifesting in the absence of a physical body." If she can puzzle out what the ghost wants, she reasons, then it can be banished. Hecht's novel has an extensive cast of characters, each burdened with a painful past or dark secret that eventually appears in the complex fabric of the plot. This multitude of stories plus the exhaustive evocations of local history and geography sometimes obscure the plight of poor tortured Tommy, but determined readers will find sufficient goose-bump material to make up for the overly detailed justifications. (Feb.)

Forecast:
This should do well with readers looking for credible, scientific investigations into the paranormal, a salient feature of all of Hecht's books
(
Skull Session;
The Babel Effect).

February 15, 2004
At a New Mexico boarding school for gifted Navajo children, a 15-year-old boy endures a series of violent, agonizing seizures. The boy's convulsions are all the more troubling because extensive medical tests have ruled out a physical cause--and because the boys surrounding him during his seizures seem to become paralyzed by the same force. Parapsychologist Cree Black (who made an impressive debut in " City of Masks," 2003) is almost forcibly brought in on the case by her mentor and is soon convinced that the boarding school is facing a bout with demonic possession. As with the first Cree Black novel, Hecht balances paranormal phenomena with everyday concerns (the endangered status of the school should tales of possession creep out). The isolation of the sagebrush desert surrounding the school is especially effective here, as are the ties with the Navajo legends of malevolent ghosts and skinwalkers. Creepy and convincing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2004
This is Hecht's second novel (after City of Masks) featuring parapsychologist Cree Black. While speaking at a conference in New Mexico, Black learns about an unusual case in a Navajo boarding school: 15-year-old Tommy Keeday is suffering from strange seizures that are growing stronger. The principal of the school turns to Black, who senses that the boy might be possessed. She must try to figure out the source of Tommy's illness while dealing with unbelieving school staff, the son of the principal's deceased husband, and the entities she senses with her empathic abilities. She also discovers that the principal is hiding a personal secret that could be related to Tommy's seizures. As with her first novel, Hecht here includes scientific methods to try to prove possible supernatural activities. Characters from the first novel appear, but new readers can enjoy this book without having read its predecessor. Details about Navajo culture and beliefs add nicely to the story. Continuing the series at a high level, this is recommended for most popular fiction collections.-Joel W. Tscherne, Cleveland P.L.

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