Red Mesa

Once an FBI agent, Ella Clah is now a Special Investigator with the Navajo Police. She walks a tightrope between the Navajo and white worlds, fully accepted by neither but needed by both. Ella's brother Clifford, a hataali, or medicine man, says that her investigative skills are a gift from the spirits who guard and guide the Dineh, but Ella insists it's her FBI training that has honed her instincts.

Motherhood has brought new joys, and new stresses, to Ella's life. Her dedication to her work remains strong, but finding the right balance is hard. She hates to leave her one-year-old daughter with her mother for the long, irregular hours she must work as a police investigator.

Now Ella finds herself and her whole family threatened. Her cousin, Justine, has a new boyfriend - someone Ella has good reason to mistrust. Justine is short-tempered and defensive; her work as part of Ella's investigative team is suffering. The cousins argue for days, in a low-key but heated manner.

Then Justine disappears. Human bones are found at Red Mesa, where she had told her family she was meeting Ella. Suddenly Ella Clah, cop, is Ella Clah, murder suspect. The murder weapon and other evidence seem to link her to the crime.

But Ella didn't kill her cousin. In fact, they had reconciled - at Red Mesa. What happened after Ella drove away?

With her former allies in the Navajo Police Department and the FBI hot on her trail, using techniques she taught them to hunt her down, Ella has to move fast. Rumors abound that Ella has turned evil and is a danger to the entire Navajo nation. Her mother, her daughter, her brother, and his wife and child will be targets as well if the Dineh come to believe the other Clahs are contaminated with Ella's evil.

A few brave people reach out to Ella in her time of trouble. Soon Ella knows what really happened to Justine.

She will reveal the truth, no matter who is hurt in the process.


Genre: Mystery