Environmentalist, pueblo Indian, Dartmouth graduate Jack White Deer again finds himself embroiled in an investigation of a perplexing mystery. Jack's discovery of an unidentified body on the banks of the Rio Grande outfitted in military night combat gear begins a dangerous journey, for the more he delves into the mystery, the more complicated and threatened his life becomes. He is helped along the way by a shaman, a safety engineer at the Los Alamos weapons lab, and a single Sioux Indian mother of a private secondary school graduate David Fowler is a former history teacher and head of an independent secondary school. Descent is his second mystery novel and a continuation of the protagonist Jack White Deer. David lives with his wife in the culturally rich area of northern New Mexico.