Cemetery Dance

UPDATE: I just finished the book, or rather stopped reading it - I'm sorry to say I don't recommend it.

The latest novel about FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child has come out - Cemetery Dance. In this story, Pendergast and NYPD detective Vincent D'Agosta investigate the murder of their NY Times reporter friend Bill Smithback by what seems to have been a voodoo-created zombie, sent by a reclusive band of Obeah practicing men living in a remote area of Inwood Hill Park.

Speaking of voodoo and zombies, this takes me back to an old movie, The Serpent and the Rainbow, starring Bill Pullman (see trailer below). I didn't see the movie so can't speak to its quality :) but what's interesting is that it was based on a non-fiction book of the same name by Wade Davis, cultural anthropologist, ethnobotanist, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence .... I read his book some years ago and thought it was so interesting that I used the info about tetrodotoxin in some of my own fiction stories.



I've learned of something from reading the book that I hadn't before known .... in the northernmost tip of Manhattan lie almost 200 acres of nearly primeval forest. Here's a little about it from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation page...

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There's old New York, and then there's old New York. Inwood Hill Park is a living piece of old New York. Evidence of its prehistoric roots exists as dramatic caves, valleys, and ridges left as the result of shifting glaciers. Evidence of its uninhabited state afterward remains as its forest and salt marsh (the last natural one in Manhattan), and evidence of its use by Native Americans in the 17th century continues to be discovered. Much has occurred on the land that now composes Inwood Hill Park since the arrival of European colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries, but luckily, most of the park was largely untouched by the wars and development that took place ...

Inwood Hill Park contains the last natural forest and salt marsh in Manhattan .... Human activity has been present in Inwood Hill Park from prehistoric times. Through the 17th century, Native Americans known as the Lenape (Delawares) inhabited the area. There is evidence of a main encampment along the eastern edge of the park. The Lenape relied on both the Hudson and Harlem Rivers as sources for food. Artifacts and the remains of old campfires were found in Inwood’s rock shelters, suggesting their use for shelter and temporary living quarters ....



The Straus family (who owned Macy’s) enjoyed a country estate in Inwood; its foundation is still present. Isidor and Ida Straus lost their lives on the S.S. Titanic’s maiden voyage. When the Department of Parks bought land for the park in 1916, the salt marsh was saved and landscaped; a portion of the marsh was later landfilled. The buildings on the property were demolished. During the Depression the City employed WPA workers to build many of the roads and trails of Inwood Hill Park.

In 1992 Council Member Stanley E. Michels introduced legislation, which was enacted, to name the natural areas of Inwood Hill Park “Shorakapok” in honor of the Lenape who once resided here. In 1995 the Inwood Hill Park Urban Ecology Center was opened. It provides information to the public about the natural and cultural history of this beautiful park. Today the Urban Park Rangers work with school children on restoration projects to improve the health and appearance of the park. Complementing the work of the Rangers is that of dozens of Inwood “Vols” (Volunteers), who assist with park restoration and beautification.

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