Fiction. Native American Studies. Red Shoes, the most formidable Choctaw warrior of the eighteenth century, was assassinated by his own people. Why does his death haunt Auda Billy, an Oklahoma Choctaw woman accused in 1991 of murdering Choctaw Chief Redford McAlester? Moving between the known details of Red Shoes' life and the riddle of McAlester's death, this novel traces the history of the Billy women whose destiny it is to solve both murders--with the help of a powerful spirit known as the Shell Shaker. "LeAnne Howe has done it. SHELL SHAKER is an elegant, powerful and knock out story. I'm blown away" --Joy Harjo.

Author City: Ada, OK USA

LeAnne Howe, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, was the screenwriter for Indian Country Diaries: Spiral of Fire, a 90-minute PBS documentary released in November 2006. Howe's first novel, Shell Shaker (Aunt Lute Books, 2001), received an American Book Award in 2002. Howe is Associate Professor and Interim Director of American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.