- Genre:fiction
- Sub-genre:Psychological
- Language:English
- Pages:320
- eBook ISBN:9781098350017
- Paperback ISBN:9781098350000
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Book details
Overview
Richard Young, a clinical psychologist practicing in Taos, New Mexico, has a troubled past. His new client, Christopher Carson, bears an uncanny resemblance to the historical Kit Carson. Christopher's obsession with the injustices perpetrated against Native Americans, heightened by specific details he provides of past injustices, begins to unnerve Richard, an immigrant. Is this a rare case of an identity disorder, trauma caused by vicarious guilt, or is it something more mysterious and otherworldly?
Becoming increasingly suspicious that Christopher is somehow using him, perhaps feigning mental illness to cover up a murder resembling an incident in Kit Carson's life, Richard's own life starts to unravel, and his character flaws become more evident. His ever-supportive and talented wife, Sharon, who is an artist, begins to question their relationship. When Richard encounters Christopher's daughter, he realizes he knows her under another name. She was deeply involved in the scandal that cost Richard his university job. It will be up to Sharon to resolve the conflicting tensions. The story is set against the harshly beautiful environs of the traditional lands of the Navajo people and the Taos Puebloans, and their vibrant cultures.
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Back cover synopsis
Richard Young, a psychologist with a troubled past, is now a psychotherapist in vibrant Taos, New Mexico. He is unsettled by a mysterious client, Christopher Carson, whose life-story bears an uncanny resemblance to the notable scout and pioneer of the old West, Kit Carson. Is this a case of a serious mental disorder or something more sinister, even mystical?
Richard's wife Sharon is a talented artist with a gallery in town. Typically supportive, she begins to question their relationship as she sees her husband's mental health unravelling. Her own quiet confidence is challenged when she discovers the new student in her art class is married to Richard's suspicious client, with whom he's becoming increasingly obsessed. Into this web of tension steps a vital Native American woman who was involved in the scandal that had cost Richard his university job. What is her connection to the enigmatic Christopher, whose untruthfulness and continuous derailment of his therapy sessions are so perplexing?
An unsolved murder fuels suspicion as Richard must confront the devastating history of the American Indian nations resisting the relentless western expansion. Sharon's patience is tested. Can she remain steadfast and hold together all these conflicting relationships, entangled as they are with feelings of guilt, regret, and cultural identity? Behind the drama and the sacred landscapes of the American Southwest, flickers the haunting essence of Kit Carson's first wife, a young Arapaho woman, Singing Grass.
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