

=-=-=-=-=-=-
BOOK REVIEWS:
  by Jack Hillman
  ---------------
  
SACRED GROUND  
Mercedes Lackey
TOR Fantasy, Paperback
375 pages, $5.99 - Eight Stars
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    (Books are rated on a ten star scale with ten being 
    the highest. Anything in the seven to ten star range is 
    a particularly good suggestion for your reading list.)


  Jennifer Talldeer was a whiteman's nightmare: a female 
Native American with a college degree and a Private Investigator's 
license. That is if the white man was someone trying to hide 
something. Jennifer was very good at her job: both of them. Because 
in addition to being a P.I., she was also something unusual in the 
native American community: a female warrior who practiced warrior 
medicine.

  A lot of her time was spent tracking down stolen Native 
American artifacts, stolen either by unscrupulous collectors or 
else by foolish tourists that didn't know what they had found. 
Sometimes, Jennifer had to return artifacts from burial mounds; 
artifacts that held power, the power of Indian medicine men and 
their spirits. The spirit world didn't like to be disturbed, and 
often gave the possessors of the artifacts nightmares until they 
either sold the artifacts or gave them to someone like Jennifer 
for return to the earth.

  Jennifer gets a call from one of her insurance contacts, a 
company she has worked with in the past with great success for 
both parties. They figure a case currently under investigation is 
perfect for Jennifer: a shopping mall under construction has 
unearthed some Native American bones and pottery shards, halting 
the project until the site can be evaluated. But before that can 
happen, there is an explosion, killing several Native American
workers and destroying some heavy equipment. The owner of the site 
claims there has been no threats of sabotage from any native 
American group trying to protect the site, but the effects of the 
explosion seem to point to the use of something more powerful than 
dynamite, suggesting a planned attack.
  
  Jennifer begins to investigate and finds herself in the middle 
of a battle between the forces of darkness trying to make an entry 
into the real world and the forces of light, trying to protect the 
land and it's people.
  
  Mercedes Lackey, long known for her high fantasy Valdemar series, 
has once again stepped into a new field of endeavor with a flair. 
Her female protagonists are people even men read with interest as 
they fight their way through strange and horrific scenes, trying to 
preserve the world, or at least their corner of it. Sacred Ground 
is the first in a possibly new series, another female private
investigator drawn by Lackey, and promises to be every bit as good 
as her other works. Add this to your must read list today.

                           Happy reading!
                        
Copyright 1996 Jack Hillman, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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John is a freelance writer, who has been published in BLOODREAMS,
ONCE UPON A WORLD, and GATEWAYS. He writes a bimonthly SF/F column
published in THE MAGAZINE of SHAREFICTION, and his book reviews
appear in POPULAR FICTION NEWS. As a contributing editor to ON THE
RISK, he keeps track of "life." Email: jhillwtr@aol.com
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