FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
The New Mexico-based writing team of Aimee and David Thurlo have created something special in their Ella Clah mystery series: hard-edged police procedurals with heart. Ella is a top-notch Navajo cop, an ex-FBI agent who returned to the reservation to investigate her father's murder, then stayed to do her part to preserve Navajo culture by making life safer for her people. In this eighth volume of the series, a tribal police officer is killed on duty, shot by an unknown assailant. It looks like a simple burglary gone wrong -- complicated by equipment failure due to departmental budget cuts -- but some of the pieces don't quite fit. Ella must find the killer and balance the scales of justice with whoever just made an enemy of the whole department. That job gets tougher than expected when the threads of her investigation start connecting to the hotly debated local issue of a proposed nuclear power plant on the reservation. While many members of the tribe feel the dangers of the plant outweigh any possible benefits, Ella soon has to wonder whether at least one person isn't willing to kill for the potential profits. Sue Stone

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"A group of businessmen want to open a uranium mine and nuclear power plant on the Navajo Reservation. The NEED project will provide cheap power to the Navajo nation, employ many who are out of work, and earn income for the tribe by selling surplus power to Arizona, New Mexico, and other western states. Investigating the murder of a Navajo cop during a break-in and robbery, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah learns that the dead man's father, a retired physicist, is strongly opposed to uranium mining and nuclear plants." "Ella's mother, Rose, opposes the plan as well, taking as her cause the health of the workers and the land. Kevin Tolino, the father of Ella's daughter, hires a bodyguard after receiving threats because of his public support of the project. A Navajo community college teacher is assaulted, and his office and home ransacked - apparently by the same person who murdered the Navajo police officer." A tribal official who opposes NEED is murdered. Clues seem to lead to a major supporter of the nuclear project, but the man insists he's being framed. Other area murders are also linked to NEED supporters - but why would a group of wealthy businessmen kill their opponents when they could just out-spend them? There has to be more going on than political wrangling, but Ella is fumbling in the dark, with uncooperative witnesses and few clues.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The suspense never lets up in the Thurlos' eighth mystery to feature Navajo Special Investigator Ella Clah (after 2002's Changing Woman), which opens with the murder of a police officer whose backup call is unanswered because of the defective equipment of the pathetically underfunded Tribal Police. Funding issues for the department and the tribe as a whole have the community divided about allowing uranium mining on the reservation. While one group touts the positive financial benefits, opposing forces remind the tribe of earlier mining efforts that poisoned their people and their land. As vandalism, threats and more dead bodies pile up, Ella works frantically to find the source of the crime spree. When she learns that the dead officer's father once worked with the highly classified government experiments at Los Alamos, the fog begins to clear and the stakes become terrifyingly high. The Thurlos weave in a lot of personal background, insights and conflicts for both Ella and her family. Adding further tension is Ella's commanding officer's insistence that her team complete a training course headed by an Anglo woman who seems willing to stop at nothing to make Ella look bad. Toss in Ella's traditionalist mother and brother, sinister skinwalkers and a handful of political bribe-takers, and you have another surefire winner in a durable series. (Apr. 10) FYI: The Thurlos are also the authors of Bad Faith (Forecasts, Oct. 28, 2002), the first in their Sister Agatha mystery series, and of Second Sunrise (Forecasts, Nov. 11, 2002), the first in a series to feature Lee Nez, a vampire Native-American cop. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Special Investigator Ellah Clah (Changing Woman), who works for the Navajo Nation, finds her latest murder investigation complicated by tribal funding cutbacks and a nuclear power plant debate. A tribal cop known for his antinuclear stance has been killed in the line of duty, and Ellah has little staff to assist her. Further murders seem to implicate violence-prone power-plant supporters, but Ellah suspects otherwise. Series fans and readers who like Tony Hillerman and other Southwestern mystery writers will enjoy the solid prose, discussions of both traditional Navajo and new traditionalist thinking, and the usual familial subplots involving Ellah's mom and daughter. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-When a young police officer's death comes under investigation, Navajo Special Investigator Ella Clah finds that faulty equipment played a major role in his demise. The underfunded Tribal Police can't update or repair anything due to the same financial problems beleaguering the entire tribe. Looking for funds, the tribe begins seriously researching a plan to build, own, and operate a new type of nuclear plant, but the fear of uranium mining divides people. After other deaths occur, links form between the murders and the mining issue. Cultural differences between the traditional and modern Navajo way of life show up in every description, from details of daily life to the science of forensics and uranium mining. Ella and her family serve as major examples of this cultural push and pull. An ex-FBI agent, she finds herself using sophisticated forensics to help solve the murders while realizing that she still seeks the Navajo Path to Walk in Beauty. With almost nonstop action and plenty of complications, this eighth Ella Clah title offers yet another skillfully mixed and expertly designed story.-Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews