White Thunder (Ella Clah Series #10)

FBI agent Andrew Thomas has disappeared after interrupting a Navajo ritual being performed by a group of medicine men or hataaliis. Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah is assigned to the case over the objections of Thomas's supervisor, who unfavorably recalls Ella's time with the FBI and believes her to have received special treatment because she is Native American.

Determined to find the missing man, Ella studies Thomas's latest case—a fraud investigation—and finds that evidence is missing or has been tampered with. Clues lead both to the interrupted Sing and to Ella's old friend, FBI agent Blalock. Ella knows Blalock is incapable of assaulting one of his own men—but that leaves the focus on the hataaliis.

The fraud trail leads through a maze of paperwork, banks, government offices, mortuaries, and into the Navajos' most dearly held-beliefs about death. Only by finding the truth—and fast—will Ella be able to save Andrew Thomas.

FBI area supervisor Simmons asks the Navajo Tribal Police to help locate Andrew Thomas, a federal agent who disappeared after interrupting a Navajo ritual being performed by a group of medicine men or hataaliis. Simmons voices his displeasure when Special Investigator Ella Clah is assigned to the case; he believes that Ella became an FBI agent, more than a decade earlier, due to affirmative action-and that she left because the job was too tough for her.

Ella ignores Simmons' pettiness, knowing that finding the missing man is the highest priority. She won't allow family issues to get in the way, so she asks her daughter's father to become a full-time parent for the duration of her investigation. She even questions her brother, a hataalii himself, about Agent Thomas. Could a medicine man have punished Thomas for disturbing the Sing?

Startlingly, Ella receives a disturbing cell phone call that seems to be from Thomas himself. He's trapped in a dark place, lost and hurt. Ella realizes that time is running out.

With the hataaliis cleared, Ella follows up on Thomas's investigation into Social Security fraud. She is disturbed to see evidence that seems to point to her old friend and Thomas's immediate superior, FBI agent Blalock. Could Blalock steal money and assault one of his own men? Ella can't believe it.

The fraud trail leads through a maze of paperwork, banks, government offices, mortuaries, and into the Navajos' most dearly held-beliefs about death. Only by finding the truth-and fast-will Ella be able to save Andrew Thomas.

Kirkus Reviews

An FBI agent last seen intruding on a Navajo healing ceremony goes missing. Confiding in no one at the Bureau, inexperienced Agent Andy Thomas enters the Navajo Reservation and confronts someone participating in a sacred cleansing ritual. Only he knows who and why. When he disappears, his supervisor, Agent Simmons, must rely on tribal special investigator Ella Clah (Plant Them Deep, 2003, etc.) to find him before he falls victim to thirst or worse in the parched arroyos and abandoned mineshafts on the rez. But someone doesn't want Ella to find Agent Thomas. Even with the help of Bruce "Teeny" Little, a former tribal cop turned p.i.; her cop cousin Justine; and her brother Clifford, a medicine man himself, it takes her the better part of two days to discover the medicine man who performed the ceremony and Melvin Rainwater, his patient. Instead of Thomas, she finds only a dismembered body with his FBI badge. A Navajo widow's complaints about missing Social Security checks lead Ella to Rainwater's boss, a mortuary owner, and a get-rich-quick scheme abetted by a dirty FBI honcho. Guns blaze, car suspensions crack, phones are tapped, Navajo death taboos are flagrantly disregarded, and Agent Thomas is kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip before finally being rescued. Sluggish prose and stilted dialogue, enlivened every now and then with a really interesting nugget about Navajo customs.

Aimée and David Thurlo live in Corrales, New Mexico. They are the authors of the Ella Clah novels and of the Lee Nez and Sister Agatha series. David was raised in Shiprock, on the Navajo Reservation; Aimée was born in Cuba.