BOOKLIST STARRED REVIEW:
The Thurlos are such deft hands at setting and mood that it’s hard not to say “ahhhh” when sinking under the spell of one of their mysteries. This is the twelfth in the acclaimed Ella Clah series (the Thurlos also write the Lee Nez and Sister Agatha series). Clah is a Navajo Police special investigator, a woman trying to balance a demanding career with single motherhood and the traditions of her upbringing. One of the special pleasures of the Ella Clah novels is the way the authors develop their overall theme of “walking in beauty” (being able to find the balance between positive and negative forces in life). Ella’s personal struggles with the nature of her job, seeking justice in the aftermath of brutal crimes, perfectly reflect the theme. In the latest, Ella investigates a sadistically staged murder (the victim, a young Navajo woman, has been put in a prayerful, kneeling position next to her bed). Ella knows the victim, who is the mother of a baby-sitter on whom Ella relies. The first phase of the investigation centers on whether the murder was premeditated or whether it resulted from a burglary gone bad. The second phase concentrates on catching a serial killer whose trail leads back to Ella’s murdered father. The breakneck pace of this crime hunt contrasts satisfyingly with the backdrop of life on the rez. One of the highlights in an outstanding series. —Connie Fletcher

"Action packed adventure. The Thurlos enrich the mystery plot with detailed reference to Navajo beliefs in tension with modern Christianity." Publishers Weekly

FALSE WITNESS

Our Lady of Hope Monastery can't catch a break. Situated in rural New Mexico, the cloistered monastery squeaks by on donations and various craft and skilled jobs suited to their cloistered, contemplative life. But when a stolen SUV crashes through their outside walls, they're faced with financial demands that far exceed their means. So when a major donor offers a great deal of money for what seems a simple task, they are quick to accept. John Gutierrez is very ill and desperately searching for his estranged niece, believed to be in the area. Having heard of Sister Agatha, the extern nun with investigative skills, he turns to the monastery for help. All Sister Agatha has to do is track down the woman and the monastery's financial worries will be over.

But nothing's ever as simple as it seems. Sister Agatha's investigation quickly lands her in the midst of a lethal game of cat and mouse and it's up to her to uncover the truth before the death toll rises.

A new Ella Clah novel, MOURNING DOVE-- NOW OUT IN PAPERBACK

Ella Clah faces new challenges in her personal and professional life in MOURNING DOVE, the newest Southwestern mystery by the Thurlos. Life in the Clah household is about to become more complicated, as Ella's mother Rose decides to remarry and the father of Ella's daughter, Dawn, announces his desire for full custody. Jimmy Blacksheep, a member of the New Mexico National Guard, is killed shortly after he returns from a tour of duty in Iraq. Investigating, Ella turns up evidence of corruption in Blacksheep's National Guard unit - corruption which might involve Blacksheep's brother, a local police officer. Ella will have to play this one very close to her bullet-proof vest...

"When an apparent carjacking takes the life of a tribesman recently returned from Iraq in the Thurlos' solid 12th Ella Clah novel (after 2005's White Thunder), the Navajo Tribal Police Special Investigator finds enough differences between this incident and the reservation's spate of carjackings to suspect the scenario is a coverup for murder. Ella's suspicions increase when fellow returning National Guardsmen describe the victim, Jimmy Blacksheep, as never having been a "team player." Now Clah and her officers must learn what sort of games these men were playing. The key lies in the manuscript pages of a tale the dead man wrote based on animals both familiar to and dissimilar from those of Navajo mythology. The handsome new pastor at Ella's cousin's church offers his considerable investigative skills and mysteriously high security clearance to help break Blacksheep's code. Add some new friction between Ella and her daughter Dawn's father, plus a significant announcement from Ella's mother, Rose, and you've got an all-around satisfying adventure. (Apr.) - Publishers Weekly (Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

"Celebrating the legendary Navajo code talkers of World War II, this terrific police procedural will appeal to Tony Hillerman fans as well as readers who enjoy mysteries set in the Southwest." - Library Journal

The new Sister Agatha mystery, PREY FOR A MIRACLE, paperback July 2007

Sister Agatha is an extern nun in the cloistered order at the Our Lady of Hope Monastery near a small New Mexican town. As such, Sister Agatha is the link between her cloistered sisters and the outside world. Usually this means running errands in the monastery's slowly dying car (dubbed the Anti-Chrysler) or their motorcycle, with Pax, the order's German Shepherd, in the side car. But sometimes it means something a bit more - like now when the diocese is upset by reports of a young girl who claims to be receiving visitations from an angel and providing insight into future events. Wanting neither to ignore a real miracle, nor give credence to what might be merely an attempt the defraud the faithful, Sister Agatha's asked to investigate. But her inquiries are soon complicated when the girl herself disappears, and Sister Agatha finds she'll need more than faith to bring her home.

Aimée and David Thurlo's nimble plotting leaves readers turning pages while Our Lady of Hope Monastery's compelling characters draw you into their richly textured world. Sister Agatha is a blessing and you'll believe in PREY FOR A MIRACLE! - Julia Spencer-Fleming, Edgar finalist and author of To Darkness and to Death

"Absorbing!...Sister Agatha deserves a place with Father Brown in the gallery of canny religious sleuths." - Booklist (Starred Review) on Willa Cather Award winner, BAD FAITH

Click here to read an excerpt from PREY FOR A MIRACLE.

SURROGATE EVIL

Review from BOOKLIST
Not your ordinary police procedural, that's for sure. Once reader's imaginations have been stretched to encompass Navajo vampire cop Lee Nez teamed with sexy FBI agent Diane Lopez, anything goes. This wildly entertaining yarn dumps the traditional cop and fantasy genres into a blender on overdrive. The action races across the Southwest as the team confronts Newton Glover, an elusive criminal bottom-feeder who seems to have supernatural powers that surpass those of Nez. Great fun. - Elliott Swanson, Copyright © American Library Association.

Lee Nez is a New Mexico State police officer and the first Navajo vampire. But Lee isn't a traditional neck-biting creature to be feared or pitied. Officer Nez is a half vampire, thanks to the timely intervention of a medicine man in 1945 - the year Lee was `turned' by a Nazi soldier/vampire seeking to steal the plutonium scheduled to fuel the first atomic bomb.

Back on the force after all those decades, Lee is protected by industrial strength sun block and bad-ass shades, and patrols New Mexico highways exclusively on the graveyard shift. The nearly black uniform - that's just another plus.

In SURROGATE EVIL, Lee and FBI agent Diane Lopez go undercover to get the goods on a mysterious ex-government employee named Newt Glover. The man is dealing drugs and terrorizing his rural neighbors in the East Mountain area of Bernalillo County. Until now, Glover has managed to avoid arrest and conviction, probably because he's been blackmailing county officials, including a few deputies in the sheriff's department. Lee's special nightwalker abilities may be tested to the limits, however. Glover was ambushed one night not long ago by neighbors who'd been pushed too far. Despite being shot at close range, Glover turned up the next day without a scratch on him. A few days later, it was his neighbor who disappeared. To make things worse, Lee and Diane also discover that Glover may be involved in child pornography and the recent disappearance of a local boy.

WHITE THUNDER, tenth in the Ella Clah series, will be released in paperback.

"...as thoughtful and intelligently plotted as its predecessors. Ella can handle herself in a violent pinch but prefers to solve crimes through deduction, analysis, and context. Additionally, the Thurlos insert numerous lessons on Navajo culture into each case. An excellent entry in [the] series. - Wes Lukowsky (American Library Association. All rights reserved.)

THIEF IN RETREAT, second in the Sister Agatha series, now in paperback. Click here to read an excerpt from THIEF IN RETREAT.

"Extern nun Sister Agatha looks into some odd doings at the Retreat, an upscale New Mexico resort that was once the Monastery of St. John in the Pines, in her divine second outing from the prolific Thurlos...Suspects that include the local sheriff and an assemblage of mystery writers, plus a resident ghost that haunts the Retreat's halls and even has Sister Agatha wondering about unrest in the afterlife, keep this cozy humming. Readers will cheer as Sister Agatha puts God first and follows his lead. - Publishers Weekly

PALE DEATH, the third Lee Nez novel, available in hardcover.

"In the Thurlo's fast-paced third adventure (after 2004's BLOOD RETRIBUTION) to feature Leo Hawk (aka Lee Nez), a half vampire Navajo and New Mexico cop who 'died' in 1945, Leo and FBI agent girlfriend Diane Lopez team up to hunt down Stewart Tanner, a vampire who's been driven insane by torture received in covert government experiments...As usual the authors smoothly combine action and investigative procedure with insights into Navajo culture - Publishers Weekly

Click here to read an excerpt from PALE DEATH.

OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHORS

Sister Agatha series: BAD FAITH

Click here to read Chapter One from Bad Faith

"The Thurlo team has already given readers seven acclaimed mysteries starring a strong woman in an unusual job - Ella Clah, a Navajo reservation cop. Now they introduce a heroine whose very occupation would seem to prevent her from solving any crimes...Sister Agatha is no walled-up innocent, however. Before entering the monastery in her thirties, she worked as an investigative journalist. Her background gets full play after Father Anselm, the monastery's chaplain, suffers an excruciating death in the midst of celebrating Mass and the toxicology report identifies poison in his bloodstream. The nun springs into action, activating her old skepticism, including even nuns as suspects, clashing with the local sheriff (her boyfriend in her other life) and fully capitalizing on all external opportunities to solve the crime. The Thurlos write with the same grace, savvy, and sense of place that make the Ella Clah mysteries so absorbing! Sister Agatha deserves a place with Father Brown in the gallery of canny religious sleuths." - Booklist (Starred Review)

Lee Nez, Nightwalker series: SECOND SUNRISE

From KIRKUS REVIEWS: "Is there anything a Navajo half-vampire cop can't handle? Apparently not. It's near the end of WWII, and in what must be one of the best pulp openings in years, New Mexico state policeman Lee Nez and his partner encounter a band of Nazi agents hijacking a US Army convoy. In the ensuing bulletfest, Lee's partner is killed, and Lee buries the convoy's cargo of Manhattan Project-bound plutonium to keep it safe and confronts the head Nazi, a vampire named Hans Muller, who turns Lee into a vampire himself and leaves him for the sun to destroy...Sixty years later, Lee's still a New Mexico cop living under a different name and trying to rid the state of skinwalkers: shape-changing evildoers with a penchant for leaping out of the dark at him in the form of a snarling wolf-or three. They may be in league with Muller, who's alive (of course) and back in New Mexico to look for the missing plutonium. The resulting bloodshed has captured the attention of other law enforcement types, especially attractive FBI agent Lopez, who starts out keeping an eye on Lee, but ends up helping him out. Paced like a hundred yard dash and yet still somehow a leisurely read. Cross-genre entertainment at the top of its form."

THE ELLA CLAH SERIES

BLACKENING SONG The first book in the series received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. After being printed first in hardcover and paperback, this book was reissued and has now gone back to press six times in a third, trade paperback edition.

DEATH WALKER "Suspenseful...an intriguing mystery set against-and deeply rooted in-a beautifully described Rez and the people who live there." - Diana Gabaldon, New York Times best-selling author

BAD MEDICINE"Fans of Tony Hillerman's Navajo novels will find themselves in familiar territory [with] this well-written mystery." - The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ENEMY WAY " A masterfully written, carefully plotted mystery featuring one of the genre's most believable and empathetic protagonists." - Booklist

SHOOTING CHANT "If it's just too long between Tony Hillerman novels, SHOOTING CHANT will help you bridge the canyons." - Rocky Mountain News

RED MESA "Fans of Tony Hillerman and Jean Hager should appreciate the way the Thurlos mix Native American lore with modern situations and forensics technique. Even readers unfamiliar with the Native American subgenre will be intrigued by the richly complex Ella and her fight to bring integrity to her work and personal life." - Booklist (Starred review)

CHANGING WOMAN "In spite of the thriller-like plot, the authors manage to present a good look at the complexities of the gaming issue while maintaining the character-driven essence of the series. Changing Woman-the creative feminine power at the center of Navajo beliefs-is seen in three generations of Ella's family. But it is Ella, balanced between mother and daughter, modernist and traditionalist, job and family, who remains the captivating focal point of this excellent series." - Publishers Weekly

TRACKING BEAR Click here to read an excerpt from Tracking Bear. "A controversy over a proposed nuclear power plant splits the Navajo Nation and leads to a series of murders in this gripping addition to the Thurlos' series...As usual in the Clah novels, the Thurlo team brings the tensions inherent in Navajo life alive by showing the myriad ways in which the tribe's traditionalists conflict with the progressives...The Thurlos also focus on how modern crime investigation conflicts with the Navajo belief in the chindi, or the evil that remains at death scenes and must be avoided...This series again offers a spirited blend of Navajo culture and police procedure." - Booklist (starred review)

WIND SPIRIT

"There are no slow spots in the action as Clah dodges bullets, heads up a hostage rescue, and battles her personal and job-related demons. Fans will delve into this one and feel right at home." - Publishers Weekly

"The Thurlos hit all the right notes; they have an intriguing growing character at the center of a series that combines fast-moving plots and a wealth of fascinating cultural information." - Booklist

ALSO BY THE AUTHORS:

PLANT THEM DEEP This book, not part of the Ella Clah series, features Rose, Ella Clah's mother...members of the Plant Watchers Society report that healing plants sacred to the Navajo are disappearing from the Rez...When Rose finds evidence that many of the stolen plants have value to the growing market of alternative and natural medications, she launches herself into the case-and into a wild adventure.

About the Authors David and Aimée Thurlo have been married for thirty-eight years. David was raised on the Navajo Indian Reservation and left Shiprock to complete his education at the University of New Mexico. Aimée, born in Havana, Cuba, has lived in New Mexico for thirty-eight years. They currently have three poodles and one horse. Their home life can best be described as chaotic - but interesting. The Thurlos' novels, translated into many different languages, are available around the world.

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