Throughout the entire book, the killer assumes no one true identity, making the book difficult to predict and leaving the reader puzzled when the book is finished. I myself thought I missed some key feature in the book when I came to the last page and still had no solid answer for who the killer was. Trying to find other points of view on the book, I researched different reviews and they all identified John as the k

Perhaps the most challenging part of this book is trying to identify the killer, since no one and everyone all have their reasons and key moments when you think it must be them. Limiting the book to the few Indian men discussed in the book (since it takes a great deal of strength to carry of a man) the human candidates are Reggie, John, and Father Duncan. Father Duncan was only mentioned briefly, but his description is that of a strong Catholic Indian, who apparently snapped and wandered of into the dessert. There is a possibility that it could be him, however we only learn about him through flashbacks, practically ruling him out as the potential killer.

Several people in the book were encountered by the killer, yet the method behind each one's interaction was different. All victims were white males, but the killer was careful with whom he selected and what he did to them. Justin Summers, the first victim was a white man who just seems to carry the essence of being white in his name, as pointed out by Paul. He selected him not out of anger or envy, but because the man was confident and arrogant. When he killed him, two strange things happened; the way he was killed and what he did after that.

Although the ghost dance is never mentioned as being done in the book, it is brought up as well as other hints at Indian rituals. The killer singing and dancing as more and more join in, and Marie's cryptic comment: "Indians are dancing now, and I don't think they are going to stop"(418), all lead me to believe that just as the Indians where planning the ghost dance in 1890 and stopped by the U.S. Army, it is happening now, and working. The belief of the Ghost Dance was that an Indian Messiah would then come, and restore the land to the Native Americans who originally inhabited it by destroying the white man. Perhaps by people starting to perform this ceremony, this Indian Messiah is the one who transforms to the killer and takes a white man's life, and slowly removes the white man from this land. As Marie says to Dr. Faulkner and Dr. Mather: "If the Ghost Dance had worked, you wouldn't be here. You'd be dust"(313).

John is more convincing than Father Duncan, however it just doesn't seem realistic that he would hurt anybody. One reason I feel it could be John is because in the very beginning of the book: "John needed to kill a white man

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Approximate Word count = 1593
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)