Bone Game is a murder mystery on a grand scale. Cole McCurtain, a mixed-blood Indian professor of Indian Studies at Santa Cruz, California, is haunted by dreams dating back to events of Spanish California. Images of a Spanish priest murdered in 1812, a rearing grizzly bear, and a black-and-white-painted Indian who offers bones in his extended hands come at a time when dismembered pieces of a young woman are washing ashore in 1993. The dreams become increasingly urgent as the murders become more frequent, and Cole's family and friends gather to help -- including Choctaw relatives who travel west from Mississippi because "this story's so big, Cole sees only a little bit of it".
"Bone Game will take you by the throat and shake you up some". -- James Welch, author of The Indian Lawyer.
"Ghosts walk and spirits talk in Bone Game, a metaphysical mystery by Louis Owens that is eerie enough to be read aloud around a campfire". -- New York Times Book Review.
"Owens expertly mixes genres and blends in generous amounts of Native American history. To his credit, he also leavens his grim but gripping tale with substantial humor". -- Publishers Weekly.
"The text's richness lies in its addressing the more pressing concern and psychological mystery of the contemporary mixedblood Native American: the internal conflict of 'Who am I?' ... This quest for identity cleverly parallels the search for answers to the random slayings which paralyze the larger Santa Cruz community". -- World Literature Today.
