Dr. Annie Weston, a young ambitious anthropologist, journeys to Arizona in 1950 seeking a mysterious shaman named Thunderwalker. Traveling alone, armed with only a 9 mm handgun, some stolen maps and a beautiful crystal dagger, and sheer tenacity -- to overcome the obstacles that seem to roll in her way like tumbleweeds, she forges her way into the ruggedly haunting back country of the Navajo Painted Desert to search for Thunderwalker, with the help of a handsome cocksure teen-aged Navajo boy named Willie, and in spite of the menacing defiance of another mysterious Indian with dangerous powers of his own, Johnny Bear Slayer, as many of the colorful characters in his small band of cohorts can attest to.
Tales of witchcraft, kidnapped babies who are never seen again, gross cattle and sheep slaughters, sightings of strange wolves in the area who are rumored in whispers to have once been men. And Dark Walkers, unspeakable abominations that used to be human, who are driven to suck the very life essence of a man to feed themselves. All of these dangers await Annie on her quest.
After some help and hindrance along the way, she suspects that Thunderwalker is not simply a reclusive peaceful shaman living out near a cave on the Big Mesa, as her research and interviews have led her to believe, but a fearful, dangerous sorcerer, and that he dwells, not in this world of humans, but in the "Place Between Worlds." She also discovers an untapped power within herself, one that has been lying dormant since she was a young girl suddenly forced to defend herself against a would-be child molester in the only way she was able. But now, by the time she discovers this dwelling, and how to use this power, it may be too late for her. Like the spider and the fly…
