Preview
  • White Shell Woman

  • A Shaman Mystery
  • By: James D. Doss
  • Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger
  • Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (34 ratings)

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White Shell Woman

By: James D. Doss
Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger
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Publisher's summary

The two sandstone monoliths towering over the southern Colorado landscape are wrapped in ancient mystery. To the local tribes, they are the Twin War Gods, sons of the moon goddess, White Shell Woman.

Legends tell of strange happenings in their shadows, of lost treasure and Anasazi blood sacrifice. But it is a much more recent history that troubles former Ute policeman-turned-rancher Charlie Moon, specifically the fresh corpse of a young Native American woman unearthed at an archaeological dig.

©2002 James D. Doss (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
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Editorial reviews

Mysterious monoliths in Southern Colorado…legends of a "White Shell Women"...a corpse… If magic and mystery are your cup of tea, you'll love White Shell Women: A shaman Mystery.

Protagonist Charlie has been warned to stay away from the statues…but of course, that only makes them irresistible to him. He does go near them, and in this book you'll find the consequences. Combining ancient and modern mystical elements, Native American lore, and classic mystery-genre tropes, James D. Doss comes up with a really unique story. The narrator here is Romy Nordinger, whose high voice has a certain efficient quality: She bustles, rather than reads the story through.

What listeners say about White Shell Woman

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love the characters!

It was irritating to hear the narrator mispronounced Herford when talking about Herford cattle. It is Herford not Hereford. I live in cattle country and it was hard to keep hearing it pronounced that way

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

An okay story

This was a decent story for fans of lightweight mysteries set in the recent American West. If I rate it as a “Native American mystery” with the Hillermans as a 5, it’s a 2.5-3, depending on your tolerance for corny humorous moments. Sometimes it felt dated.

What I liked most were the scenes featuring Charlie’s aunt Daisy. She’s a feisty elder Ute, and she brings a touch of humor as well as Shaman beliefs to the story. Ross managed to play with the mysticism a little too, to show how many of us can on the one hand imagine - or on the other, fail to acknowledge - the existence of otherworldly spirits and beings. The mystery itself was okay.

The dated scenes featuring the dim and self-absorbed female grad student dragged the book down for me. I mean, that’s just not typical of a grad student of any decade and especially not in a field like archeology. But some readers might like the humor of the hapless young woman accidentally causing trouble for our detective hero and his poor love life. Similarly, the bad FBI agents felt overplayed to me, but some might find the scenes funny.

I don’t recall any foul language or sex scenes. There is one usage of a slur for illegal immigrants, by a character who is not meant to be likeable. I’d call these cozy-adjacent if not outright cozies.

On the whole I might try one or two others either much earlier or later in the series, to see if they feature more of the aunt.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This is a great anthropology mystery series!

The Charlie Moon Series by Jame D Doss are WONDERFUL. You'll never get Daisy Perika out of your head! The novels are about the UTE nation, their heritage and murder mysteries. I have read the books years ago and wanted to re-enjoy the series while out running or driving, etc.
I will say I had to warm up to Romy. She does not pronounce many Spanish words correctly but if you can get past that, you'll enjoy the audibles.
I would REALLY love it if they did more of the series. I miss Daisy and her side-kick Marie. Charlie's sleuthing out murders, his unfortunate love life and relationships.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Might've been a good story, but...

I couldn't stand the voice work. The reader put inflection in weird places, rhythm was all off. I just couldn't listen to it. It was as though the reader was accustomed to doing children's books ... Very irritating.

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4 people found this helpful