The Pumpkin Seed Massacre

October 4, 1999
Slater's debut, set on the Tewa Pueblo in New Mexico, combines Native American culture with some of the elements of a twisty medical thriller. Protagonist Benson (Ben) Pecos, who was born on the pueblo but grew up in Utah, accepts an internship in counseling from Dr. Sanford Black at the Albuquerque Service Unit of the Indian Health Service. Black is concerned because four people with similar, flu-like symptoms have died in the course of four days. As the number of cases mounts, words like "epidemic" and "plague" begin to be bandied about. Ben, whose mother was Tewa and whose father was Anglo, soon finds himself in the midst of the investigation into these mysterious deaths. Television news reporter Julie Conlin is assigned to cover the story, and, though their first meeting starts inauspiciously, she and Ben are attracted to one another. As they delve into the increasing number of deaths, the governor of the pueblo dies of the mysterious plague, an event that vaults Johnson Yepa, who wants to develop a casino on tribal land, to the top post. Meanwhile, a tribal elder is found to be in possession of a packet of pumpkin seeds that Black and his team figure out contain a deadly, manmade virus. That the virus and the casino are connected won't come as a surprise to readers. Nor will the identity of the man behind all the mayhem, since Slater identifies him very early. With most of the suspense dulled, Slater has to rely on the appeal of Ben to sustain a reader's interest. But neither Ben nor anyone else really comes alive in a narrative that is inelegantly fractured into different points of view.