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SECRET OF HAUNTED MESA by Phyllis A. Whitney

SECRET OF HAUNTED MESA

By

Pub Date: Sept. 29th, 1975
Publisher: Westminster

A perfunctory mystery--strange doings on the mesa, an Indian boy who steals kachina dolls and food from the folks below--is sandwiched in between clumsy lectures on Zuni culture and ""understanding"" Anglos and a stock psychological problem--young Jenny's fear of being upstaged by her famous, folksinging sister. Incidentally, we couldn't help sympathizing with sister Carol whose parents want her to give up a successful stage career to attend college and become a ""person"". . . or noticing that the Indians, young Charlie and his grandfather, end up looking silly for holding a secret ceremony to get brother Harry out of jail when all it takes is a rational Anglo lawyer and simpatica Senora Consuelo to straighten everything out. . . . Others may not pay this any mind, since Consuelo's motherly chic and layers of local color overpower all else. ""Who was to know what misty memories stirred on the mesa? Who was to hear the faint, far sound of a ghostly drum?"" You know who.