Under the shadow of gray clouds, three children venture into the woods, where they spot the corpse of an old man on a scaffold. Suddenly a wild figure emerges, with long fingernails and tangled hair. It is the Hattak fullih nipi foni, the bone picker, who comes to tear off rotting flesh with his fingernails. Only the Choctaws who adhere to the old ways will speak of him. The frightening bone picker is just one of many entities, scary and mysterious, who lurk behind every page of this spine-tingling collection of Native fiction, written by award-winning Choctaw author Devon A. Mihesuah. Choctaw lore features a large pantheon of deities. These beings created the first people, taught them how to hunt, and warned them of impending danger. Their stories are not meant simply to entertain: each entity has a purpose in its behavior and a lesson to share—to those who take heed. As a Choctaw citizen, with deep ties to Indian Territory and Oklahoma, Mihesuah grew up hearing the stories of her ancestors. In the tradition of Native storytelling, she spins tales that move back and forth fluidly across time. The ancient beings, we discover, followed the tribe from their original homelands in Mississippi and are now ever-present influences on tribal consciousness. While some of the horrors told here are “real life” in nature, the art of fiction that Mihesuah employs reveals surprising outcomes or alternative histories. It turns out the things that scare us the most can lead to the answers we are seeking and even ensure our very survival.

It's bitter cold in Oklahoma's Ouachita Wilderness when Detective Sam Chitto of the Choctaw Tribal Police takes on a thirty-five year old cold case involving a missing Vietnam vet and murdered couple. The discovery of a man's skull in the casket of the murdered woman, which her family had disinterred for further investigation, attracts the attention of the Vietnam veteran's mother. Believing the skull to be that of her son, she tasks Chitto with becoming a Bonepicker, returning his bones so his spirit can rest. Because bones survived flesh, Choctaw of old preserved the bones of their deceased, believing their essence dwelled within. Honored people, called Bonepickers, retrieved the bones for the family.When his preliminary investigation reveals former suspects in the murder investigation have a shorter-than-average life span, Chitto goes looking for the reason. As he unravels the mystery, long-held secret that have kept county residents living in terror the past thirty-five years begin to tumble. Incidents in the Vietnam conflict and the long-term effects of warfare on the four veterans in the story add depth.Fulfilling his role as Bonepicker, Chitto returns the bones to the family. However, the killer is above the law. Or so it seems. A macabre twist at the end ensures that justice prevails.

Sam 'Buzzard' Jones stumbles across a dying man, whose final words set him on a course that will change his life and have repercussions for an entire nation... In the cauldron that is Bleeding Kansas, he fights for truth, justice and freedom. With a small band of allies Buzzard battles an unknown organisation -- never sure who's a friend and who is a foe -- and never knowing where the next bullet is coming from.

EROTIC ROMANCE: Mature AudienceFBI agent Lily Foxworthy and her husband, actor Peter von Rabenhorst, encounter a deadly adversary in a demon called Tallis the bone picker. Simply wanting to replace an antique table they sat on and broke while making love, they wander through a new local antique store which has popped up near to Santa Barbara.The owner is very odd and his specialty is lifelike dioramas which he offers to collectors around the world. Lily is on the hunt for a serial killer who could be operating out of the Santa Barbara area and when she and Peter meet and greet with Tallis, they become targets as materials for his various unearthly sculptures. Always protective and creative when it comes to Peter, Lily is faced with a real challenge at the emotional climax to this adventure #3 in The Foxworthy Files.

Against the flamboyant background of the "Golden Spread," the oil-rich Panhandle of the late 1950s, Al Dewlen has poised a full-scale and truly original novel of one Texas family--the Mungers of Amarillo. The six Munger siblings are the heirs of hard-drinking, hardscrabble farmer Cecil Munger, who in one generation brought his family from Dust Bowl poverty to unfathomable wealth. Wayward humor, warmth and passion, vigorous and imaginative revelation silhouette their individual rebelliousness against the debilitating restrictions of the family empire.

Under the shadow of gray clouds, three children venture into the woods, where they spot the corpse of an old man on a scaffold. Suddenly a wild figure emerges, with long fingernails and tangled hair. It is the Hattak fullih nipi foni, the bone picker, who comes to tear off rotting flesh with his fingernails. Only the Choctaws who adhere to the old ways will speak of him. The frightening bone picker is just one of many entities, scary and mysterious, who lurk behind every page of this spine-tingling collection of Native fiction, written by award-winning Choctaw author Devon A. Mihesuah. Choctaw lore features a large pantheon of deities. These beings created the first people, taught them how to hunt, and warned them of impending danger. Their stories are not meant simply to entertain: each entity has a purpose in its behavior and a lesson to share—to those who take heed. As a Choctaw citizen, with deep ties to Indian Territory and Oklahoma, Mihesuah grew up hearing the stories of her ancestors. In the tradition of Native storytelling, she spins tales that move back and forth fluidly across time. The ancient beings, we discover, followed the tribe from their original homelands in Mississippi and are now ever-present influences on tribal consciousness. While some of the horrors told here are “real life” in nature, the art of fiction that Mihesuah employs reveals surprising outcomes or alternative histories. It turns out the things that scare us the most can lead to the answers we are seeking and even ensure our very survival.