Synopses & Reviews
Set on the Navajo reservation packed with Native American wisdom, Aimee and David Thurlo's Ella Clah novels are written with a sharp eye for conflict between the traditionalist and modernist ways of life. Former FBI Agent Ella Clah is now a special investigator with the native police force on the Navajo reservation. Ella's brother Clifford, a Hataali or medicine man, says that her investigative skills are gifts from the spirits who guard and guide the Navajo, but Ella insists it's her FBI training that has honed her instincts.
When the daughter of Senator Yellowhair is killed in a suspicious car accident, the Senator accuses Ella and the tribe's medical examiner, Dr. Carolyn Roanhorse, of tampering with evidence and falsifying the autopsy results. An outbreak of meningitis leads to more trouble when many of those who are vaccinated begin dying from an unknown disease. Riots between Indian and White workers at the Navajo-owned mine stretch the resources of the tribal police even thinner.
Convinced that solving one mystery means solving them all, Ella plunges into her investigations despite threats from all sides and her suspicions that Navajo witches are somehow involved. Ella Clah has sworn to protect her people from all menaces--spiritual and physical--and she's not going to back off now.
Review
"Suspenseful and appealing; An intriguing mystery set against--and deeply rooted in--a beautifully described Rez and the people who live there." -Diana Gabaldon on
Death Walker"A complex and satisfying mystery richly woven with Navajo culture and mysticism." -Tess Gerritsen on Death Walker
"The authors know and love the Navajo world to the great benefit of their readers." - Carolyn Hart
About the Author
Aimée and David Thurlo have been married for more than thirty years and have been writing novels together for nearly that long, in a variety of genres including romance, young adult, and mystery. They have three ongoing mystery series, the
Sister Agatha series, starring a cloistered nun, the
Lee Nez series, featuring a Navajo vampire who teams up with a female FBI agent to fight crimes that have elements of the supernatural, and their flagship series, the critically-acclaimed
Ella Clah novels. Several Ella Clah novels, including T
racking Bear, Red Mesa, and
Shooting Chant, have received starred reviews from Booklist.
David Thurlo was raised on the Navajo Indian Reservation and later taught school in Shiprock, also on the Rez. Aimée, a native of Havana, Cuba, has lived in New Mexico for more than thirty years. The Thurlos share their home with dogs, horses, and various pet rodents. They have written more than fifty novels which have been published in more than twenty countries.