Hunter’s Dance
By Kathleen Hills

      It is the fall of 1950, and the town of St Adele in rural Michigan is holding its annual Hunter's Dance in the town hall. It is an uproarious affair. Eighteen-year-old Bambi Morlen, son of a summer resident of the swank and exclusive Shawanok Club, has a fist fight with one of the local boys, Marvin Wall, a Native American. After the dance, Bambi is found dead and partially scalped. The autopsy reveals that he was both stabbed and poisoned.

        Constable John McIntire is lured away from translating Lagerlof's Story of Gosta Berling from the Swedish to English to investigate the bizarre crime. He finds a wife desperate to save her heavy-drinking husband, a bereaved mother who hires a private investigator more interested in uranium mining than in finding the killer', a father who is unaccountably absent, and an ancient recluse who is jealously guarding his privacy.

        There is a wealth of suspects, all with different motives. McIntire must combat the local prejudice against the Native Americans and against the wealthy out-of-towners.

       This portrays an excellent picture of rural Upper Michigan in the 1950's with its diverse population of Native Americans, Swedes and Anglos. The plot is a complicated one with doubt about the cause of death confusing the issue. It is an excellently written story with a shocking ending.