When a grotesquely mutilated murder victim turns up dead on the
back ranch lands of Oklahoma, Buck McDivit finds himself employed by the local
law enforcement to help solve the murder. As he catches his footing researching the crime, he finds himself sucked
into a vortex of deepening odd occurrences in the mystery novel, Morning Mist of Blood by Eric Wilder.
The first impression of the murder, albeit odd in its
mutilation aspect, seemed solvable for Buck with his cowboy ways of poking and prodding
around; questioning the locals that he knew so well had an unraveling way of
finding out what people knew. However, the simultaneous circumstances involving
some cattle rustling by unknown ranch hands seemed to add a possible new dimension
to the crime as Buck, having a local’s knowledge of the town folk, was hired to
solve both mysteries. Buck “knowing the
town folk well” would be an understatement, as Eric Wilder plays a heavy
sub-plot articulating Buck’s past carnal scorecard in quite a bit of
detail. From the waitresses he slept
with to lady land barons, Buck’s past sexual relationships are discussed to a
point of having this book become, in my opinion, inappropriate for young adult
readers.
Needing all the work he could get, Buck took on a part-time
employment offer from Clayton, a wealthy oil entrepreneur turned rancher to
solve the case of his missing cattle. At
first the details seemed as if an ordinary cowboy influenced “who-done-it”
story was in the formation. Then, just like
an Oklahoma tornado beginning, the winds of the storyline form a vortex of plot
pressure that sweeps the reader into a world as strange as Oz, laced with
Indian spirits and bizarre animalistic rituals. Eric Wilder goes further than just a cowboy mystery when Buck uncovers a
virtually unknown town, set off on private property surrounded by electronic
surveillance and patrolled by their own security detail. The village, called Lykaia, is inhabited solely by women, and run by Lana, an extremely
attractive woman. Lana is a “corporate
executive type” of person during the day managing the administration of this
village, daunting her
supermodel features, while occasionally at night she reveals her inherited
powers from Indian forces rooted in the spirit world.
Eric Wilder does a skillful job brining to life his oddly
unbelievable set of characters, events and circumstances, while keeping to a
dusty, windblown cowboy theme within his story telling prose. I found his use of dialogue, descriptions and
narrations being well balanced, perfectly “spiced” so to speak, bringing suspense
to his terse and fast moving plot. Lacing
the story with the sensuality of the feminine prowl of women participating in a
ritual influenced by drugs and Indian spirits, prancing around half naked with
only feathers and body paint, gave this book a machismo which may have lopsided
his audience acceptance to mostly males.
The book also had a cameo appearance of a Border collie
puppy, named Pard, being drawn into
the story. To me this indicated the love
and joy Eric Wilder gets from his dog, as witnessed by the photo of the author
with “his pal” on the back cover.
This genuinely original story is nicely set into the modern
day cowboy setting of ranchers and oil men. Flaunting wealth and power, with the twist of the Indian spirits of the
occult and the sensual practices of a group of women followers add a vein of
sensuality that differentiates Wilder’s work in a unique way, ideally entertaining
for primarily a mature male audience.
Buy this book at Amazon.com
