Ancient legends, edge of the seat suspense, a heart tugging romance and such vivid details that the reader is right there at every turn of the plot. Outside Man has it all. This is a wonderful story that will appeal to both romance readers, fans of Tony Hillerman, and other Native American based suspense tales. Ms. Holmes keeps you guessing until the last page where she delivers a happy ending and all the loose ends tied as well." Gwynn Morgan, author of Powerful Medicine and the Copper Stars Of Cochise series

What people are saying about Cora's new book...

The protagonist of Cora Holmes’ novel The Outside Man is Mell Stewart, a woman who has suffered recurring nightmares and panic attacks ever since the death of her newborn son four years earlier. With her crooked, charismatic husband dead and her life a mess, Mell has traveled to the Alaskan wilderness in search of Askhana, the Aleut mummy rumored to offer guidance to those who ask.

But when she finds Askhana, she also finds Adam Hudson. With his Aleut features and taciturn manner, Adam is the embodiment of the Outside Man, the legendary Aleut outlaw spurned by his own people. The foster brother of her late husband, Adam stood accused of killing his mother, and was disowned by the family patriarch. Adam has come to Askhana for guidance in his quest to clear his name. But the signs from Askhana indicate that Adam and Mell’s futures lie along the same path.

Holmes’ spare language echoes the stark beauty of the Aleutian wilderness, and the novel is resplendent with myth and wild magic. When Mell falls into a glory hole (a deep and unexpected pit) she climbs out using a bone she finds as a belaying pin. When she learns the bone is that of an Aleut—most likely an Outside Man—she becomes intent on returning it to the body in the glory hole, for the Aleuts believe that to cut up a body disperses the soul’s power. In her quest to return the Outside Man’s power, Mell discovers her own power to save herself and Adam.

Holmes has created a wonderfully tight story. While Adam’s attempts to clear his name drive the novel’s action, the real adventure lies in the depths that Mell and Adam discover within themselves. Both yearn for connection and family, both are nearly crippled by their pasts, but they are also strong willed and stubborn. With their contradictions, disappointments, strivings, and yearnings, Mell and Adam have a natural complexity that seems to transform them from characters into real people, and the book from fiction into truth.

Indeed much of the book is concerned with transformation. Holmes uses the glory hole as a metaphor for the power that lies deeply within us all; descent into the pit’s darkness mirrors the descent Adam and Mell make into their own internal landscapes, emerging with new knowledge of themselves. Outside Man becomes, then, a deeply felt journey into and out of the darkness.

Cora Holmes lives and writes in the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska. She is the author of Good-Bye, Boise...Hello, Alaska, and Dear Cora... as well as several magazine articles and short stories." - BookWire Review, May 11, 2006

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