Plant Them Deep

Medicine men and members of the Plant Watchers society report that sacred healing plants are disappearing from the Rez. In an effort to locate and protect the rare plants, the tribal council asks Rose for help. She faces strong opposition both from healers reluctant to reveal their secret herb-gathering spots and from people who think the Rez should be cultivated with genetically-engineered plants instead of native species.

Rose is shocked to discover that many plants appear to have been stolen, perhaps for the lucrative market for alternative and natural medications. Soon after her notes and maps are stolen, a Navajo man is found dead near a gathering site. Rose is convinced that he was murdered by the plant thief.

Rose has picked up a trick or two from Ella Clah, her police officer daughter; she begins an independent investigation that soon has her up to her neck in trouble.

For the Navajo, to "walk in beauty"-to stay in balance with the natural world around one-is the greatest gift, and the greatest task, of one's life. For Rose Destea, to walk in beauty has meant threading a difficult path between traditionalist and modernist ways. Though she worships at the family shrine, her husband was a Christian preacher. Though her son, Clifford Destea, is a respected hataalii or medicine man, her daughter, Ella Clah, is a Special Investigator with the Navajo Police and a former FBI agent.

After decades as a wife, mother, and grandmother, Rose has become a tribal activist. Briefly in the national spotlight when she spoke against bringing casino gambling to the Navajo Reservation, Rose now works to guide not just her family but the whole tribe into a balanced future.

When Navajo healers and members of the Plant Watchers society report that healing plants sacred to the Navajo are disappearing from the Rez, the tribal council asks Rose to catalog the plants and their growing places. She faces strong opposition from hataaliis reluctant to reveal their secret herb-gathering spots and from people who think the Rez should cultivate genetically engineered plants instead of native species.

Rose finds evidence that many plants have been stolen-plants that may be valuable in the growing market for alternative and natural medications. Rose's home is burgled and her plant notes stolen. Adding to her worries is the serious illness of an old friend and the apparent extinction of a plant essential to the healing ritual that is the sick woman's only hope of a cure. Then a Navajo man is found dead, apparently of a heart attack; Rose is convinced that he was murdered by the plant thief.

Rose has picked up a trick or two from her police officer daughter; she begins an independent investigation that soon has her up to her neck in trouble.

Plant Them Deep is a stand-alone novel that complements the Ella Clah series and will deepen readers' understanding of the Navajo world.

Publishers Weekly

Nothing is planted deep in this disappointing entry (after 2002's Tracking Bear) in the Thurlos' popular series starring Navajo Special Investigator Ella Clah. Here Ella's mom, Rose Destea, takes center stage. When the tribe's medicinal and ceremonial plants start vanishing from the reservation, the tribal council appoints Rose, a Plant Watcher, to investigate the problem, and she soon confirms that someone is indeed stealing these invaluable resources. Rose requests that the medicine men who use the plants assist by revealing only to her their ancestral plant-gathering locations. Little does she realize that acquiring this information will jeopardize her safety. After a chance meeting, Rose enlists the aid of old friend Charlie Dodge, whose appearance finally changes the tone of this otherwise placid tale of botany to something more menacing. Ella appears in a tense conclusion, but all in all, this is the coziest of cozies, long on horticultural detail and short on mystery. (Nov. 10) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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 Tracking 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.