Trader, too, has long been away from home - driven there by his own actions. He has spent years following trade and the freedom and protection afforded by it up and down the rivers of North America. Now he is in possession of enough copper to buy his own chiefdom and finally settle-down as the richest of men. Why then does he feel the call of home and see in his dreams the eyes of a woman left behind long ago?

Two Petals is being driven from her home by villagers who do not understand her and who fear her strange power. She is a contrary, living her life backwards, able to see but not understand the future that is / was her past. Is there a home for her - a place where the voices and the visions will finally stop tormenting her and placing everyone around her in danger? Can Old White and Trader take her to such a place?

W. Michael and Kathleen O’Neal Gear have once again taken their readers on a living, breathing journey into North American prehistory. In People of the Weeping Eye, they have returned to the saga of the Mississippian chiefdoms, a return which will be welcomed by readers of People of the River, one of their earlier works. And once again, they not only tell a tale of the prehistoric past and its peoples, but bring that story full-circle to our own present - this time with lessons to learn from the past about our current environmental condition.

Fans of the North America’s Forgotten Past Series will not be disappointed by this latest addition. The Gears are impeccable scholars and mesmerizing novelists. They brilliantly blend these two talents together to write historical fiction of a long-ago past with as much intrigue, mysticism, romance, and violence as any novel set in the present day. They truly bring the past to life - and for this reader they made a day-trip to Moundville, Alabama a necessity after reading this book. New readers and ardent fans will join me in eagerly awaiting part two of this book, People of the Thunder.