THE REDBIRD'S CRY

Molly Bearpaw, sole investigator for Oklahoma's Native American Advocacy League, once again tackles a case of murder in this slow-moving follow-up to Ravenmocker (1992). The victim is activist lawyer Tom Battle, shot by a blowgun as he narrates a Cherokee folk tale at the annual heritage celebration devoted to the tribe's crafts and history. Molly confronts a tangle of mixed- up characters in and around the heritage activities: Battle's lover, Daye Hummingbird, a painter whose nasty ex-husband, Wolf Kawaya, carves blowguns; weaver Regina Shell, the only support for her sick twin brother, Steven, who's in and out of psychiatric hospitals; Maud Wildcat, a weaver and grandmother of unruly Robert, who'd used the blowgun. It proved not to be the cause of Battle's death, but Maud is superstitiously convinced that a display of priceless wampum relics never shown before is the true assassin. Working with D.J. Kennedy, her policeman lover, and Tony Warwick, the tribal investigator from Muskogee, Molly rehashes scant evidence and tortured lives until the wampum disappears and light begins to dawn. Heavily padded with inane chatter, balky romances, and snippets of Indian folklore, this is far from Hager's best, and no match for her Chief Bushyhead adventures (Ghostland, 1991, etc.).