Grey Pilgrim, Vol. 27 Book

A strikingly original plot blends unknown bits of real history with imagined incidents to create an unusual thriller. Its base is the last American Indian uprising in Arizona, occuring in October, 1940. At its core lay a struggle for civil rights.
Deputy U.S. Marshall and Spanish Civil War veteran J.D. Fitzpatrick arrives in Tucson, a shell shock case. His job should have been a sinecure, but then the insensitive local BIA agent provokes a gunfight over the draft and riles the Papagos. Fitpatrick is sent to the reservation to arrest the ringleader, Jujul, and his band of renegades, but they have skipped out into the desert. Why should they accept a call for military service from a country that refuses to recognize their citizenship?
Meanwhile, a Japanese Kempeitai agent we meet in Manchuria is sent to America to stir up discontent, make life awkward, and buy some additional preparation time for Japan's Pacific campaign.
All these forces, including ghosts from J.D.'s terrifing past in Spain, collide along the Gulf of California.
Displaying an appreciation for history and a rousing imagination, first time author Hayes delivers an unusual, enjoyable, and "what-if" novel.

Publishers Weekly

This well-written first novel is based on an actual incident in 1940: a recalcitrant Papago Indian chief defied the U.S. government by refusing to register the young men of the tribe under the new Selective Service Act, and disappeared into the desert with his followers. Here, Jujul and his tribe become renegades following a similar incident with an obtuse and arrogant official from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and U.S. marshall J. D. Fitzpatrick is sent in to mediate. A Spanish Civil War veteran still traumatized by his experience, Fitzpatrick finds his attention drawn more strongly to beautiful, young--and married--anthropologist Mary Spencer than to Jujul. In a nicely handled plot twist, the young woman ends up living with the tribe as an observer, without realizing their identities. Disaster strikes when a Japanese agent provocateur arrives on the scene to aid, abet and incite the Indian ``revolution.'' A violent and bloody confrontation is the inevitable result, leading to an ironic and bittersweet conclusion. Filled with bits of Indian lore, peopled with memorable characters and written with a deft humorous touch, the novel eventually surmounts the loss of tension occasioned by an overzealous use of flashbacks. (Aug.)