Misquemachus Returns in Graham Masterton's "Burial"

This is the best of Graham Masterton's Manitou horror series, in which likable Harry Erskine, New York Tarot reader who makes a living hustling sweet old ladies who worked hard at outliving their rich husbands, confronts the vengeful spirit of an Indian medicine man as cities across the country vanish into the earth.

Masterton took the medicine man Misquemachus from an H.P. Lovecraft reference and turned him loose on a New York hospital more than two decades ago in his first horror novel. I read that book quickly, then immediately reread it. I still have my shelfworn, signed copy.

The Manitou was so successful that it spawned a 1978 movie with Tony Curtis as Harry and Michael Ansara as his ally, a modern medicine man, John Singing Rock, who describes Misquemachus as "the greatest medicine man of all. He turned rivers, made storms. Mountains rose at his command. No spirit ignored him. No demon denied him. "

I won't go as far as saying Curtis was entirely miscast as Harry because I really liked him as Erskine, but the actor's penchant for going hostile was occasionally at odds with what the character was trying to do and that made it easy to miss. At one point, he snarls that he's going to call up Gitche Manitou, the Great Spirit, and starts to stalk off to be interrupted by a plot development and every time I see that scene I think, where exactly was he going? If you ever see the movie, you'll see what I mean. Also, I've watched the movie numerous times, but even I admit the ending was changed for the worst with a 2001 into-the-spiraling-computer-screen-kaleidoscope effect (a low budget horror movie with Clint Howard I later saw actually showed the computer screen-as-computer screen so you could see it happen and there went what magic was left in the effect). I wished they'd used the book's ending, notwithstanding the nudity of the female romantic lead in the film's climactic scene.

You have to realize how much I prefer the book's ending when I find myself criticizing the opportunity to view the impresive Susan Strasberg when she is barefoot all over.

I know I'm digressing, but I'm writing this, not you. Let's get back to where I left off.

As I was saying, the sequel, Revenge of the Manitou, made less impression on me and I can't recall very much about it except that Singing Rock is killed in a confrontation with the spiritual form of Misquemachus. Sorry to tip you off beforehand, but I'm not exactly recommending this book anyway as anything other than serviceable.

In Burial, Masterton's theme is to have the spirit of Misquemachus engineer the destruction of the white man that was the goal of the Ghost Dance movement. It's a delightfully complicated storyline and Harry once again finds himself dragged from his comfortable life into trying to find the means to stop the demonic Misquemachus as skyscrapers are dragged down into the ground.

No wishy-washy flicker in the corner of the eye in this story which used to be the standard that The Manitou helped change. Harry is going to meet the Native wonder-worker face to face...and he ain't going to like it. It's out of print, so look for it at library book sales, Amazon, or Half.com. Billed as the final story of a trilogy, one more book actually followed, Manitou Blood, when Masterton obviously found another twist to play with.

Great book.