Review Tour & Giveaway: Kill Pocahontas by Ray Anthony Morris

KILL POCAHONTAS

by

Ray Anthony Morris

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Thriller

Publisher: Tellwell Talent

Publication Date: March 1, 2025

Page count: 302 pages

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SYNOPSIS:

Hallee Landry is a promising young Tsawwassen First Nations attorney and litigator with an enviable résumé and a bright future. At only twenty-seven years old, she is not a residential school survivor. 

Or is she?

Everything she has understood to be true about her origins is challenged when she is kidnapped while in Kamloops to attend the annual Pow Wow. Now somebody wants her dead. But why? The perpetrators seem to be a confounding mix of low-level criminals and a sophisticated cadre of malefactors backed by someone high up at the Vatican.

Hallee is bewildered to learn that her only allies are an elderly nun, a venerable old Catholic priest, and an Indigenous midwife. This motley crew of improbables faces long odds in unravelling a 50-year-old mystery before the opposing menacing forces erase history for good.

Lurking in the shadows is a long-standing conspiracy of extortion, child abuse, kidnapping, and murder. The only clues on offer are an old drawing, a scratchy cassette tape, and a majestic totem pole

First-time novelist Ray Anthony Morris beckons us into the classroom and dares us to slip behind the curtain of an Indian residential school. Much like the backdrop of the mighty Fraser River, serpentining through the Canadian Rockies, this heroic story lifts our spirits on the wings of heart-choking tales of uncommon valour and then plunges us straight into the rollicking, white-water rush-ride of a sensational suspense thriller.

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ENJOY AN EXCERPT:

I think my panic would have been more acute without the hypnotic rhythmic motion of tires thrumming the highway. I was dead sure my eyes were open and yet, I could not see. Terrified even to ask myself in silence, I asked nonetheless: Was I blind or just emerging from some dark, propulsive nightmare?

My nose itched and I could have used a good scratch, but my hands wouldn’t do what I asked them to—they couldn’t move. I was pretty sure I had been asleep. If I’m honest, as I became more fully awake, more alert, the original dozy bewilderment of my earliest consciousness was caving from the onslaught of adrenaline, of fear.

I was fighting hard for basic comprehension. It occurred to me that my nose was itching because something, some cloth or hat, was covering my face. I struggled to draw a breath, and, speaking of that, I could smell my breath and was not impressed. The cloth was also rubbing against my ears. OMG! I was hooded!

That encroaching fear I referred to earlier had become full-on incandescent fright. I tried unsuccessfully to work my hands loose. I didn’t waste my energy on that exercise for long because I recognized the cold, hard plastic feel of zip ties digging into my wrists. Although my area of expertise was civil rights, not criminal law, I knew it was not in my favour that I was bound by zip ties versus rope or rags, or whatever had come…well, to hand—pun unavoidable.

My mind raced with unwelcomed images, whether from my time spent in a courtroom or from watching Law and Order reruns, I couldn’t be sure. Four hundred and twenty pound tensile strength nylon. Some of the manufacturer’s features included but were not limited to the following: double-tooth-in-lock for extra strength, pre-set for instant submission and, of course, they met the standards for law enforcement and military apprehension applications. It was not encouraging.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ray Anthony Morris was raised in the small town of Oromocto, New Brunswick. He was not raised to look the other way, not take a side, or not get involved. His friends know him as champion of fair play and an advocate for social justice and racial equality. He currently lives alone in Alberta, Canada.

 

This novel is a work of fiction but based on a true story that the author was simply compelled to tell.

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REVIEW:

4 stars!

Absorbing tale of murder and genocide set against the backdrop of Canada’s Indian Residential School tragedies. 

Kill Pocahontas by Ray Anthony Morris is a heartbreaking and gripping story of murder, institutionalized abuse, and genocide of indigenous children, using the tragic history of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools as its background. Indigenous attorney Hallee Landry is on her way to the First Nations PowWow and Potlatch when she is abducted, her head shrouded and hands bound behind her back, and shoved into the back of a fleeing Porsche Cayenne, without a clue as to why. She believes it is a case of mistaken identity. However, careless driving, an encounter with a bull moose on a winding mountainous roadway, the subsequent car accident, and the aid of two good Samaritans effect her eventual escape. Safely back and in touch with her PowWow contacts, Hallee is informed of her family’s history, which connects her to the tragic events at the local South Thompson Indian Residential School, of which she was completely unaware. Her existence, her very DNA, irrefutably connects a powerful Roman Catholic Church official directly to the abuse and murder at the school, and he’s not about to go down without doing everything he can to get rid of all evidence. 

This mesmerizing story is told from multiple points of view, both in present time and 50 years in the past, but the main perspective is that of Hallee Landry. She begins the story in complete ignorance of her connection to the notorious school, so Hallee and readers learn of her past at the same time. While the points of view and time periods switch back and forth, they are clearly identified and well told, so there was no confusion as to who was narrating or when events were occurring.

The book starts with Hallee’s frightening abduction, and it’s a truly riveting opening. The story relates horrific incidents of all manner of abuse against the children at the school and incorporates the history of the government’s residential school policies. Readers sensitive to or triggered by the stated content warnings should take into consideration their tolerance for these issues prior to proceeding with the book. The author further acknowledges that the book contains scenes that may be triggering for First Nations, Inuit, and Metis people, especially victims of abuse at residential schools. In the end, the resolution is hopeful, surprising, and satisfying. 

I recommend KILL POCAHONTAS to readers of thrillers and historical crime fiction. 

CONTENT WARNING: child abuse, child sexual abuse, racism, racial subjugation, racial slurs, murder, kidnapping, hatred, violence, bullying, drug use, fentanyl. 

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Ray Anthony Morris will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

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