Aimée Thurlo

With the Navajo Reservation plagued by a series of arson fires, including one that kills the wife of a councilmember, Ella Clah of the Navajo police pursues the killer, but her investigation is hampered by traditionalist tribal members.

"A construction crew found the first body. The cops found three more, in a cluster that lay on both sides of the border of the Navajo Reservation. Because some of the bodies were buried outside the Rez, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah and her team must work a delicate joint investigation with the New Mexico police. Identifying the dead isn't easy--some had been buried for years--and at first the cases look to be nothing but dead ends....

Faced with costly repairs to the cloistered Our Lady of Hope monastery, Sister Agatha, the local extern nun with a talent for detection, accepts an offer by the ailing and wealthy John Gutierrez to search for his estranged niece, who is believed to be inthe area.

Struggling with her mother's marriage and her ex's attempts to gain custody of their daughter, Ella Clah investigates the murder of a New Mexico National Guard soldier whose death points to corruption in the victim's unit.

In the midst of local conflict over bringing a casino to the Navajo reservation, Ella Clah finds her life complicated by terrorists who are threatening the Navajos' local power plant and by the disappearance of her young daughter and the child's father.