The Haunted Mesa
First edition
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| Author | Louis L'Amour |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Clifford Bryclea |
| Country | United States/Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction, Adventure novel, Weird West |
| Publisher | Bantam Books |
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Publication date
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May 1987 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 357 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 15284986 |
| 813/.52 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3523.A446 H3 1987 |
Haunted Mesa is a science fiction novel by Louis L'Amour, set in the American Southwest amidst the ruins of the Anasazi. L'Amour attempts, as in others of his works, to suggest a reasonable explanation for the phenomena attributed to The Bermuda Triangle, i.e., portals between worlds or different facets of this world. The same phenomenon is used, albeit in a very minor way, in his novel The Californios. A useful contrast between the two novels is that in The Haunted Mesa, the Anasazi leadership, who rule both the portals and their people with an iron hand (the Hand and the Voice are two of the leaders), are corrupt and thoroughly evil, whereas the person or people who know about the portal in The Californios are reserved and rather helpful to people they respect. These were different portals however, and did not necessarily lead to the same location.
Mike Raglan, a roughly middle-aged man who specializes in paranormal investigations (and normally debunking the phenomena) has received urgent phone calls and mail from an old friend of his, Erik Hokart. Hokart was an independently wealthy scientist, inventor, and businessman who made his fortune in electronics. He was investigating an odd patch of mountainous country in the Southwest, intending to build a secluded home on top of one particular mesa around which rumors had long swirled. His messages to Mike intimated that he was in deep trouble and desperately needed someone of his talents.
Hokart doesn't show up at the designated meeting spot, but the next day Mike receives a package from him, delivered by an exotic female beauty. A man breaks into his room to try to steal the package, and is only finally sent off with a book Raglan wrote by a lie and a .357 Magnum.
The package contains Erik Hokart's journal of his quasi-archaeological expedition. The first night on the chosen mesa, glowing lines appear on the blueprint, of a kiva (a room used for religious rituals) attached to the ruins of the house Hokart was using as a makeshift shelter. Hokart is a little perturbed when the glowing lines turn out to be correct, and he begins to excavate the underground kiva even though it looks to have been deliberately buried. It creeps out both him and his large guard dog, "Chief".
Fully excavated, the kiva reveals itself as anomalous in having no sipapu but rather a blind window made out of a curious gray substance. After he finishes, Hokart discovers that a pencil of his had been stolen and replaced with a jar. Afraid, Hokart begins to leave; Chief mistakes his abrupt movements for an intention to attack the kiva and plunges through the window and into a far invisible distance through to somewhere else. Erik begins to consider the legends and beliefs of the Hopi: they say their people originally came from the Third World, which was evil, and so they climbed up into a kiva in this, the Fourth World, to escape it; the obvious speculation is that a malign power of the Third World was sealed by the burial of the kiva and that it wants the window to this world opened back up.
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Wikipedia