Tracking Bear
An Ella Clah Novel
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4.2 • 34 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Ella Clah returns in Aimee and David Thurlo's Tracking Bear. "Mystery readers who like their murders solved by applied intelligence will love Ella Clah." --Tony Hillerman
A group of businessmen is working 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 plans 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 outspend them? There has to be more going on than political wrangling, but Ella is fumbling in the dark, with uncooperative witnesses and few clues.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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. FYI:The Thurlos are also the authors ofBad Faith (Forecasts, Oct. 28, 2002), the first in their Sister Agatha mystery series, and ofSecond Sunrise (Forecasts, Nov. 11, 2002), the first in a series to feature Lee Nez, a vampire Native-American cop.
Customer Reviews
Tracking Bear
Worst ending ever
I feel ripped off. I cannot believe I paid for this book.