About the Book
When Charlie Littlewolf and Sara Reynolds discover why her husband, Bryan, was murdered, their lives change forever. While Charlie swore to avenge his white brother's death, the path to do so remains unclear.
His job with Lone Star Operations provides the opportunity to use his college education and earn a generous income. However, it conflicts with everything he knows to be right. Is violating the Earth wrong or not? Little does he realize that his work will ultimately return him to his people on the Northern Cheyenne reservation where his true destiny will manifest in ways he never imagined.
Sara is determined to fulfill Bryan's last request to expose the government corruption as well as the lethal forces that took his life. Releasing the scandalous Top Secret data via WikiLeaks infuriates those with much to lose, who place a high price on her demise. Her response gets a bit too personal, subsequent efforts to silence her forever closer to home than she realizes.
While miles apart, each struggles with life-threatening situations inspired by their dedication to Bryan's legacy. Their lives remain entangled through a series of everyday decisions and circumstances that define a future wrought with unknowns for them both.
About the Author :
Marcha Fox earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Utah State University in 1987, which facilitated a 20+ year career at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Her interests expand far beyond the world of aerospace and hard science, however. The esoteric realm of metaphysics and all things weird and wonderful hold her interest as well. Forever fascinated by the heavens, when her attempt to debunk astrology backfired, she pursued knowledge in that field as well. She graduated from the International Academy of Astrology's professional development program in 2012 and created ValkyrieAstrology.com. Much of the popular website's informational content can be found in "Whobeda's Guide to Basic Astrology." Her previous fiction work includes five novels in the classic hard science fiction genre. Her epic Star Trails Tetralogy series has been highly acclaimed for its family-oriented plot as well as its palatable and accurate science content. Directed primarily to teens and young adults, more information can be found on www.StarTrailsSaga.com.The Dead Horse Canyon saga is her latest work with co-author, Pete Risingsun, an enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe. This award winning trilogy melds Native American culture with a government conspiracy thriller, its final volume published January 2025.Born in Peekskill, New York, she has lived in California, Utah, and Texas in the course of raising her family that comprises six grown children. Besides writing, she pampers her two cats while trying to keep up with her astrology clients, home, yard, friends, family, and of course, writing. She currently makes her home in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. Pete Risingsun is an enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe well-versed in their ceremonies and traditions, having served as a spirit helper to medicine men in ceremonial sweat lodges where traditional procedures are meticulously followed. Born the eighth child of ten in 1950, he was raised on a small ranch east of Busby, Montana. He's a proud fifth generation descendant of Iron Shirt, a lodge keeper and powerful medicine man. After graduating high school in 1968 he attended Montana State University for four years. When offered a position with Exxon as an employee relations director overseas, he turned it down, instead completing a three-year apprenticeship in plant operations in Billings, Montana. He worked in that capacity for one additional year until he accepted a job as adult education director for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe back home in Lame Deer, grateful to see the refinery fade away in the rear-view mirror. Back on the reservation, Pete raised black angus cattle and bred championship Quarter horses. He served as a Tribal Council member for six years and was the first Northern Cheyenne elected as a Rosebud County Commissioner, a position he held from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2012.He's the proud father of one daughter, Echo Raine, who blessed him with two grandchildren, Sierra Star and Skyler Seven. Pete is currently retired, but stays busy co-writing The Curse of Dead Horse Canyon series as well as making sweetgrass braids, a sacred plant used in various ceremonies.
Review :
Return to Dead Horse Canyon: Grandfather Spirits by Marcha Fox and Pete Risingsun is a conspiracy suspense novel and the second book in the Dead Horse Canyon Saga, preceded by the series' critically acclaimed and award-winning first book, The Curse of Dead Horse Canyon: Cheyenne Spirits.
Two characters drive this saga, a widow named Sara Reynolds whose husband Bryan was murdered, and she very nearly along with him, after discovering corruption at a massive scale; and Charlie Littlewolf, Bryan's dearest friend, whose connection to the history of the land, his Cheyenne roots and the spirits that reside in both is far deeper than believed.
The mission to avenge Bryan's murder and get the truth about the government's project out to the public is the driving force behind all of Sara's actions, no matter how dangerous they are. Charlie shares in this but is also confronted with a battle of conscience, memories, physical and emotional trauma, and the wise words of family, both now and in the past, to reconcile who he has become and who he is meant to be. "Until you have seen death, you cannot comprehend life. Experience provides the path to understanding which leads to wisdom."
I went into Return to Dead Horse Canyon not having read the first book and while it does read comfortably as a stand-alone, after just a couple of chapters I actually went back to read The Curse of Dead Horse Canyon before restarting book two. It was an excellent decision. The building of the Cheyenne history is critical to the story and had I not understood Sara's complete motivation and Charlie's fully fleshed-out roots, I'd have missed out on so much more than just a good read.
Sara's plight is noble and even as she is met with roadblocks at every turn, she is not dissuaded. The peril she faces is amplified and pushed to maximum pacing when she pulls a Snowden-esque rabbit from her hard drive. However, it's Charlie that is most compelling to me.
My gosh, the depth of ethnology packed into both novels is meticulously researched and beautifully detailed. There are moments of lessons hard learned and realized, a standout being a conversation at his grandfather's deathbed and another is when Charlie is finally able to harness a previously dormant and profoundly spiritual faculty. Co-authors Marcha Fox and Pete Risingsun are a dream team with this saga and I'm really looking forward to the third and final installment of their trilogy. --Readers' Favorite 5-Star Review
