Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah is on the run. Justine, Ella's cousin and fellow officer, disappeared after the two women argued publicly over Justine's new boyfriend. Human bones are discovered at the spot where the younger woman had told her family she and Ella were to meet late one night. Suddenly Ella Clah, cop, is Ella Clah, murder suspect. Stunned by Justine's death, Ella has no time to mourn. Her former allies in the Navajo Police Department and the FBI are hot on her trail, using techniques she taught them to hunt her down. Ella has to find the real killers--and fast--before the Dineh act on a growing belief that Ella's mother, brother, and young daughter have become evil. Ella Clah, special investigator with the Navajo Tribal Police (Shooting Chant), splits her time between cases and her toddler daughter. A recent puzzling convenience-store robbery, an enigmatic e-mail warning, a vengeful outlaw on the loose, a newly assigned Hopi FBI agent, and Ella's strange-acting police partner all underscore Ella's own intuitive sense that something bad will happen. When it does, she stands accused not only of murder but also of fulfilling a well-known family curse. The authors deliver an intense, spellbinding family drama in which the battle between good and evil affects both modernist and traditionalist Navajo. Prime reading for fans of Tony Hillerman and other Southwestern mysteries. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. The Navajo ideal is to "walk in beauty," that is, to have all elements of one's life in balance. This is the challenge Navajo Ella Clah, former FBI agent and current head of the Major Crimes Unit of the Navajo Tribal Police, has faced in the Thurlos' previous five Rez mysteries; the challenge is heightened here by the tension between her professional and family lives. Not only does her mother, the caretaker of Ella's 18-month-old daughter, nag her repeatedly about time spent away from home, but Justine, her cousin and assistant, is both reckless--endangering both of their lives at an arrest--and spiteful, calling into question Ella's professionalism to higher-ups. The conflicts between Anglo and traditional ways are brought into high focus as Ella becomes aware that someone on the Rez is out to get her. When her cousin is found murdered, buried in a shallow grave atop Beautiful Mesa, Ella must deal with grief, anger, and the need to find the killer before he strikes again. Fans of Tony Hillerman's Jim Leaphorn and Jim Chee, and of Jean Hager's investigator, Molly Bearpaw, 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. Connie Fletcher Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Mystery readers who like their murders solved by applied intelligence will love Ella Clah."--Tony Hillerman " Red Mesa is an engrossing mystery as intricately woven as a fine Navajo rug. It kept me guessing to the end."--Margaret Coel, New York Times bestselling author "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) 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.