The Parrot Trainer

"At the scene of a fatal accident, Jack Miller, who had been a prominent art dealer and collector, finds a sketch of a parrot trainer from an ancient Indian Mimbres bowl along with a map to a cliff dwelling. He is fascinated by the image of the parrot trainer and her haunting gesture. Obsessed, he finds the bowl and is stung by something venomous as he descends the cliff. He manages to drive home in spite of his violent reaction to the venom. There, to his confusion, Willow, the parrot trainer, comes to life and begs him to free her spirit from the bowl. Jack is certain she is a hallucination, a product of his own mind.". "Lucy, an archaeologist from the east, is in New Mexico to give a speech at a convention when she receives a call from Philip, a renowned archaeologist as well as her mentor and lover. Philip has discovered that a secret DNA test at Berkeley has identified a Caucasoidal specimen from a l5,000-year-old body found in a glacier in Alaska and that the sample was sent by a Jack Miller in Silverado. This significant find could revive his waning celebrity. Philip asks Lucy to find Miller and get him to reveal the location of the man in the glacier.". "After Lucy's speech, she has a run-in with Henri, a pixieish deconstructionist, who is the subject of a documentary by edgy Anita and her wildman/cameraman Billy. When Anita and Billy learn of Lucy's plan to go to Silverado, they offer to take her so they can film the fireworks between Lucy and Henri. The drive from Albuquerque to Silverado turns into an antic - and sometimes violent - road trip, as they clash with each other and provoke the locals."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.