Set against the backdrop of El Niño and the resulting storms and floods, the novel tells the story of two young Americans who get caught up in a blood feud between powerful Peruvian families. John Hauser, a Texan, accompanies his friend David Leroy on a journey of discovery to South America. While in Peru, John forges a relationship with local landowner Heim Ulmson and gets involved in Heim's struggle to keep his plantation from being stolen by a prominent banker, Don Enrique de la Cruz. John becomes romantically involved with Heim's beautiful neighbor, Linda de la Piedra. David also pursues Linda, causing a rift between the two best friends. As the storms worsen and the floodwaters rise, John discovers supernatural elements in the blood feud between Heim and Don Enrique, and is forced to commit a murder by a means he never imagined possible.
Published by University of New Mexico Press in 2007 and reissued in an ebook edition in 2012, Meeting the Dead is Andrew Geyer's first novel. The supernatural beliefs and folkways of the Quechua people, painstakingly documented by the author during time spent in the Andean region of Peru, are central to this riveting story of greed, passion, murder, and revenge.
Well-developed characters, a plot that blends the grittiness of realism with the grace of the supernatural, and a setting that is somehow both exotic and familiar.
—Matt Smith
Rare indeed is a novel which successfully balances electric entertainment with the rigors of unquestionable literary excellence. Meeting the Dead is just that: a haunting, beautifully written tale scintillate with completely believable characters, a palpable sense of place, and a riveting, propulsive plot; a tale so artfully shaped by the author that it is seamless.
—Larry D. Thomas
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