A gripping action story with a vein of star-crossed romance
In this prequel to 2022's THE RED CANOE, Buck, aka Michael Fineday, aka
Red Deer is on his way to track down his wayward brother in the Twin
Cities, when he's trapped in a snowstorm and rescued by Sally, a girl
who is fighting her own demons. Though intrigued by Sally, most of
Buck's time is spent trying to unravel his family's involvement with an
elaborate racket which has recently gotten his cousin Ruben and his
half-brother Bear killed.
Eli, Buck's surviving brother, is up to his neck in the racket that
involves insurance fraud and stolen vehicles, and unwilling to tell Buck
the truth. The racketeer's kingpin thinks Eli has something they
want--which is both his death warrant and his salvation. The problem is,
Eli doesn't know exactly what the something is or how to find it; his
only clue is a phrase in Anishinaabe language Ruben scrawled on the wall
of his room before he was killed, and it's up to Buck to track it down.
Meanwhile, Sally and Buck grow closer through the shared wounds of their
difficult pasts; and Buck teaches her some Ashinaabe language and
cultural practices. Strangely, all roads--both Sally's and Buck's--lead
to the Witch Tree, an important spiritual reservoir in Native American
religion, and where he is forced to face the many facets of his own
identity and find a way for them both to heal.
