Visitant means supernatural being of some sort, like angels or demons. They aren't real now but the world of an Anasazi revolves around them. Of course, what's important to the Anasazi is also very important to the scientists/researchers who dig them... the Archaeologists. The Visitant is two stories in one. It tells of the murder-mystery of a time long past concerning an Anasazi village and the archaeologists on an impact assessment of an ancient burial ground. The Anasazi part follows Browser, a war chief, as he buries his infant son who had died of the coughing disease. As if that wasn't bad enough, when he was setting his dead son onto the burial pit - he couldn't. The burial pit had been desecrated by another body. Yikes. But wait, there more. The body in the burial pit was his missing wife's. But wait! There's even more... Ash Girl, Browser's wife, had a stone on top of her head signifying that she was a witch! It was a bad day for Browser, especially since later that day, they discover that his secret lover, Hophorn the Sunwatcher, was injured and was near death. She had suffered from blow to the head and was being cared for by Cloudblower the Kokwimu, the village healer and also an elder. Cloudblower needed to take a bit of Hophorn's skull out to let the evil spirits escape. Nice. It was turning out to be a very eventful day for Browser. But it wasn't over. When he was about to retrieve his dead wife's body out of the burial pit, it went missing. They had suspected that Ash Girl turned into an owl and flew witch-ly away. What an exciting day Browser was having!That was a complete contrast to the archaeological excavation happening right "now". Granted that I might be biased as I had experience going on an archaeological excavation. I still did not care about anyone in that team, except maybe for Dale. I did not care to know about the lives of Dusty, Maureen, Sylvia, etc. The only good part was when Aunt Hail, the NAGPRA monitor's aunt came to visit that it went all exciting. Otherwise, I'm sorry but the archaeologists seem more interested in everybody else's personal lives than the excavation itself. The way Dusty talks, he would NEVER be able to LEAD an excavation where I'm from. How does one not know isotope tests? What?! How did he ever pass school? That's one of the most common bone tests in archaeology. Not everyone does it because it's damn expensive but that's why everybody knows of it. You don't go graduating to leading an excavation if you don't know anything about it. Plus, no one talks like Dusty and Sylvia does in an excavation EVER!!! I've been doing that a long time and I would never dare talk like that to anyone even my own best buddy. Because you're in an isolated place with sharp implements where accidents happen. And rationing plus careful meal plans seems to be not part of this excavation. NO WONDER YOU'RE OVER BUDGET! Where is their quartermaster? Where are the buckets btw? And the most unbelievable thing of all, why does Dusty have firearms in an excavation? What are you?! It defeats the bylaws of scientific investigation. If you are afraid of armed men going to get you, please bring a group of armed men to protect you. You don't go bringing firearms yourself because you are a scientist. OMG. Is this how it is to dig in that part of the world? I'm shocked. I'm even more shocked that Maureen just takes it. Oh you dig with guns, that's wrong... oh well, back to my bones. Plus, what I wanted to see was the pure excitement of archaeologists discovering ancient remains with a whole lot of trauma and others. It feels like a book written by an amateur archaeologists with sentiments that a seasoned archaeologists would have already outgrown. ** SPOILER ALERT ** ** SPOILER ALERT ** ** SPOILER ALERT ** ** SPOILER ALERT ** ** SPOILER ALERT **** SPOILER ALERT ** ** SPOILER ALERT ** ** SPOILER ALERT ** ** SPOILER ALERT ** ** SPOILER ALERT **The more interesting bit was the Anasazi murder-mystery. Browser's favorite warrior, Catkin, was sent out to fetch Stone Ghost, the ancient detective. He lived out in the desert on his own and was considered your regular crazy old fellow. Stone Ghost visited the other villages that had female members disappearing on them. These villagers assumed that their girls were taken by the evil Fire Dogs as slaves, etc. Funny enough, these girls exhibited headaches and signs of abuse prior to disappearance that they attributed to their Spirit Helper. This had also happened to Ash Girl. Stone Ghost and the outlying villages gathered to Browser's village for the Celebration of the Long Night. Cloudblower performed the rights with Catkin wherein Cloudblower took the chance to tell Catkin about a sexually abused member of the village, you know, as small talk. Cloudblower did not disclose who it was at that time. As the night went on, another girl and Hophorn went missing. Catkin went out to look for them and found the supposed killer who had hit her on the side of her head. Meanwhile, in the excavation, exciting things are happening. It seems that all the specimens had blows on the head. The later one had them only on the right side. Maureen, the physical anthropologist, suggests that the killer had been examining the language side of the brain by literally bashing heads at specific places. What's more fun is that she'd found cut marks consistent with cutting flesh off bones. That's cannibalism, the most controversial topic on earth. However, the Anasazi murder-mystery veers us away from that. Catkin sees the supposed killer, Yellow Dove, cutting the flesh off of the now dead Hophorn. Yellow Dove is making corpse powder, a dangerous element that causes ghosts to shrivel and die. In Anasazi mind set, ghosts are as good as the living making corpse powder an element of evil used usually by witches. Darn. Yellow Dove tells Catkin that he's not the killer, there's a bigger one. It was the Spirit Helper who was banging the girls' heads in. He was the one who was killing the girls and not Yellow Dove, who was just there to deflesh and bury the girls afterwards. Turns out Yellow Dove is in fact Ash Girl, who had developed multiple personalities on account of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child. The Spirit Helper is Two Hearts who was Ash Girl's evil dad. Browser unknowingly shot her with an arrow and she dies in his arms. Browser is an idiot. Not because he shot his wife, it was because he didn't care to know about his wife. Catkin is also an idiot who, as a girl, didn't bother to ask Ash Girl what was the matter. They are all idiots and Ash Girl is the true victim, with Hophorn as the supporting character. Cloudblower had failed miserably but she knew this so she's saved from criticism. Back in the "now", Aunt Hail confirms that the true killer is not among the individuals in the burials. And that Two Hearts had one this time. So, please expect book two. I wouldn't pick up book two. The archaeologists are just not interesting and are really more interested in their personal lives. That's really not true in the field. When one goes out in the field, you don't wear your heart on your sleeve. In fact, you leave your heart at home and put up all the shields you've got. Everyday interactions are one of severe, dry and cold politeness. You make friends, yes. But everyone is at their very best at avoiding conflict and upholding professionalism. You don't do anything to upset anyone and you keep your eyes on the ground. Even if you're seeing a conflict happen in front of your eyes, you don't see anything and walk away. You laugh at jokes but all the jokes you would hear are impersonal. You clean up your own mess, make sure that you're around when they give out food. You never complain about the food and you always show up on time. You do NOT leave the group like what Maureen did. You do NOT have personal time, unless you're in the crapper and you don't stay in the crapper for more than 5mins as someone else might want to use it. Everybody will always know where everybody is. And, everybody knows what everybody else is doing. But nobody comments and you keep your head down. That's what happens in an excavation. You work hard, you keep your head down and you keep out of trouble. Oh and you write everything, on your journal and on the records. Nobody keeps records in this book? Exactly.
I'm back less than a month from the Southwest (Chaco Canyon will wait until our next trip there), so listening to this book had instant appeal, especially after having visited several of the sites that showcase the ruins of Ancestral Puebloans. What could be better than a novel to flesh out their daily lives an culture? Not this book, at least for me. The authors chose a very creative way to explore the mysterious deaths: two time streams populated by Ancestral Puebloans and current-day archeologists. But I found THE VISITANT very long, especially in the middle. The characters in the current-day archeological team were much more developed in their relationships, roles and motivations; what I needed for the book to work was the same for the Anasazi characters, who were the key players in the story. And because the spirit world also occupies a key role in the plot, it also needed to be sketched in more skillfully to help the reader grasp the world view. And Stone Ghost's assessment of motivations sounded too much like contemporary psychoanalyzing of early-childhood wounds to be believable. Quite a mess. My hopes were up and this didn't fulfill them.
What do You think about The Visitant (2000)?
The Gears are the best at what they do, which is writing about pre-history based on archeology, creating a plausible fictional story to help us to understand the facts and thus preserve our own Native American history. Kathleen and Michael have been my lamplight in becoming a Native American historical fiction writer. They alone are responsible for peeking my interest in our dim past and have provided a window to that time and place of which they write. If you desire to see the past of our unknown history of the Native tribes of North America, I advise you to make all of the Gear's books your first choice. You can do no better. Kitty Sutton
—Kitty Sutton
This is a very interesting story. There aren't (to my knowledge) many fiction books that have the Anasazi as center of focus. Even less that are based on a murder mystery. I really liked this book and look forward to reading the next two in the series. Reading this book, you can't help but learn about the people in this time period and their ways of life. The book jumps from the story in the past, about the murders that took place, to the story in the present, about the archeologists digging in the southwest and trying to piece together the events of the murders. I found this interesting but, at the same time, while I was drawn into the mystery of the past, I didn't feel the present day story sections had enough to offer the overall tale. Every time the book would switch to present time, I'd think to myself "doh!", and I couldn't wait to get back to the actual story line. I did like all the characters and felt that in the past and present, they were all very well developed, with pasts of their own. A very intriguing read.
—Scott
Great book if you are interested in Native American history or even if you don't. This is the 1st book in this history murder mystery Trilogy. It has all the things needed in a good novel; love, hate, mystery, family, smarts, and wit. Jumping from present day to 1100 bc, you will constantly be wondering what is going to happen next. But most importantly for me, this historical trilogy is as accurate as a fiction can get about a topic that is still a mystery. I love reading historical fiction and I love it even more when the authors have done their research. This is a great book about the time period and also just a great book.
—Stephanie
