num_pages: 303
description: After her archaeologist father is killed in a mysterious car crash on the Navajo Indian Reservation, lapsed socialite and museum designer Amanda Bell travels to the remote deserts of Monument Valley to fulfill his last wish—deliver and archive his Southwest literary collection, a gift to the fledgling Navajo Cultural Center.To Durango Yazzie, the Center's intensely driven Navajo director, her arrival is unexpected and intrusive. For one thing, she sticks out like a tall cool glass of lemonade in an espresso bar. For another, she's a daily reminder to an uneasy community of the fiery car crash in the desert and the body still out there never properly put to rest.Amanda is unprepared for the culture shock of reservation life, a culture Durango is recommitted to preserving after having turned his back on his heritage in his youth. Bitterness had chased him from the reservation, but it was the hard lessons he learned outside that sent him back. Now he wants only two things: to teach Navajo youth the importance of preserving their heritage—a heritage he once denounced—and stop a neighboring landowner from claiming Yazzie land. Amanda's days spent cataloging dusty journals, diaries and books are interlaced with threats, rumors of scandal, sullen and secretive teenagers who spend too much time in the desert, a scheming small town newspaper editor who knows everything but tells nothing, and a menacing presence watching her every move. Does an ancient charmstone really have the power to protect her from unseen enemies?This story of mystery, history and love carries the reader deep into the breathtaking landscape of Monument Valley and provides a glimpse of Navajo culture. Readers will be swept along as Amanda and Durango unearth unsavory truths and come to grips with where they belong in the world.
language: English
title: The Charmstone
titlecomplete: The Charmstone
ratings_count: 21
places: Utah
publisher: Five Star