Anyone who has even a casual acquaintance with the history of New Mexico in the nineteenth century has heard of the Santa Fe Ring - seekers of power and wealth in the post-Civil War period famous for public corruption and for dispossessing landholders. David Caffey looks beyond myth and symbol to explore its history.
Walters' novel is a thriller centred on Smithsonian researchers persecuted by Native American ghosts. Human ears, strung like beads on a cord; scalps with hair and ears still intact; infant bones in a medicine bundle; corpses, whole, in a cardboard box. These artefacts in an obscure corner of the Smithsonian cause Indian ghosts to haunt, torment, and murder researchers.