Taken from an old Puebloan myth, the title of this book reflects a new direction for the Gears' fiction. While each of the "People" books begins with a modern archaeological dilemma, THE VISITANT takes this process a step further. One hundred years after the events described in PEOPLE OF THE SILENCE, the Chacoan empire lies in ruins. Nevertheless a few hardy farmers have returned to Chaco Canyon including Mesa Verdean peoples from the north. In a desperate gamble to reestablish the First People's empire, they refinish the old kivas, paint the walls with the images of the Katsinas, and attempt to reopen the doorway to the land of the ancestors.

At the same time, War Chief Browser and his Deputy, Catkin, search desperately to unmask a killer who has been abducting young girls from local villages. The search for the murderer leads Browser to seek the advice of his crazy uncle, Stone Ghost. As the mystery of "The Two" deepens, Browser and Catkin can't be sure who is the hunter, and who the hunted. Bodies begin to pile up as the fabled witch, Two Hearts, stalks ever closer. In the end, it is Catkin and Browser who must pay the price.

Eight hundred years later, dirt archaeologist, Dusty Stewart, is about to fulfill a lifelong ambition: to excavate an untouched site in Chaco Canyon, the huge Anasazi site complex in northwestern New Mexico. He and his partner, Dr. Dale Emerson Robertson, have a scant few weeks to dig a small two-room ruin before construction destroys it. One by one they begin to uncover the bodies of young women. Most ominous of all are those who have been left with stones overlying their crushed skulls. Dusty thinks he has discovered a slave graveyard, but Dale decides to call in Dusty's arch nemesis: Dr. Maureen Cole. After the famous Canadian physical anthropologist arrives to analyze the skeletal material, events on the site take a turn for the worst as ancient evil fills the air.

Dusty and his Indian monitor, Hail Walking Hawk, are sure they have uncovered the body of a witch and her victims. Maureen Cole, a pragmatic scientist can't believe she's hearing such nonsense from the lips of a fellow professional. Despite her Seneca ancestry, she has no patience for silly myths and superstitions.

Reveling in their dislike for each other, Dusty and Maureen nevertheless begin to piece together evidence from an eight hundred year old mass murder. In the process, they begin a chain of events that unleash an ancient evil into the modern world. When is the past the future, and the future the past? Can Dusty and Maureen set aside their mutual dislike long enough to solve the mystery of the 10K3 site?

THE VISITANT begins the "Anasazi Trilogy" which includes THE SUMMONING GOD and BONE WALKER. Not only does the modern story provide a reader with an idea of how Southwestern archaeology is conducted, but it reflects current theories on Anasazi warfare, cannibalism, ancient disease, witchcraft, and the beginnings of the Katchina religion.