Black Thunder - (Ella Clah) by Aimee Thurlo & David Thurlo (Paperback)

About the Book

Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah hunts a serial killer on the Navajo Reservation.

Book Synopsis

A construction crew found the first body. The cops found three more--on both sides of the border of the Navajo Reservation.

Because some of the bodies were buried outside the rez, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah and her team must work a delicate joint investigation with the New Mexico police. Identifying the dead isn't easy--some had been buried for years--and the cases are stone cold. Then one of the bodies turns out to be that of a missing man who was believed to have embezzled funds from his construction firm...and suspicions focus on the man's partner.

With no obvious links between any of the corpses and the anniversary of their deaths fast approaching, Ella feels frustrated. Unless she and her team can find what connects these victims, someone else may soon be killed. Ella's ability to concentrate is battered by worries about her teenage daughter, who has been skipping school, and her mother, who is cooking up a storm, a sure sign that trouble is brewing in the household.

Black Thunder, an Ella Clah novel, is a police procedural mystery that should appeal to all readers but especially fans of Tony Hillerman and J. A. Jance.

Review Quotes

"The book mixes straightforward police procedural with Tony Hillerman-style exploration of the culture of the Navajo. Ella Clah continues to be a compelling character and the story here, which involves a possible serial killer (or maybe something a lot less complicated), should keep readers on their toes until the final pages." --Booklist on Black Thunder

"Clah is always good company, on and off the reservation." --The New York Times Book Review on Earthway

"An unusually tense mystery." --Kirkus Reviews on Earthway

"Ella is compelling as a highly skilled officer of the law dealing with modern vs. traditionalist issues on the reservation." --RT Book Reviews on Earthway

About the Author

Aimée and David Thurlo have won the RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award for their romantic suspense, the Willa Cather Award for Contemporary Fiction, and the New Mexico Book Award. They are coauthors of the Special Investigator Ella Clah series, the Lee Nez series of Navajo vampire thrillers, and the southwestern Sister Agatha cozy mysteries. Aimée, a native of Cuba, lived in the US for many years. She died in 2014. David was raised on the Navajo Reservation and taught school there until his retirement. He lives in Corrales, New Mexico, and often makes appearances at area bookstores.