Review of THE WITCHES TONGUE by James D. Doss

A CHARLIE MOON MYSTERY

St. Martin's Minotaur, September 2004

Ute tribe investigator Charlie Moon is visiting his aunt when a woman bursts into her trailer with a strange story of dreams, King Kong, and her husband climbing a moonbeam. Charlie and a local cop look, but can't find any sign of the missing husband--but find themselves caught in a roadblock, chasing an Indian who thinks he can fly, and generally running into the kind of trouble that the tribe pays Charlie to help them avoid. Somehow, it's up to Charlie to get to the bottom of the mysteries of missing museum pieces, a missing husband, a strange fight between a cop and an Indian who can't quite fly but is happy to sue the tribe, and, before it's over, multiple murders. Unfortunately for him, he's got to do all the detecting while his love live gets tied up in knots.

Author James D. Doss (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by Doss) combines Native American mysticism, a rich dash of humor, a tall (7 foot), dark, and silent hero, and some confused but mostly likable criminals into a fast-reading story. Poor Charlie continues to have rotten luck with his women, great skill with his detecting, and questionable success with his ranch (although beef prices were up four cents).

As with the other books in the Charlie Moon series, THE WITCH'S TONGUE is less about who did it than watching Charlie Moon go through the paces, astound those around him, and manage to come out ahead somehow (except on the little matter of love). At times the story got a bit silly, and I would have liked to see more of Aunt Daisy and her pitukupf, but that didn't keep me from getting completely hooked. Good stuff.

Four Stars

Reviewed 10/14/04

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