A Time of Change
For readers familiar with the Ella Clah mystery series, this may seem like Ella lite. There’s a bit of Navajo culture, to be sure, but it’s very watered down compared to what the Ella Clah books usually offer. The plot is nowhere near as developed as they are in the Thurlos’ Clah or Sister Agatha series. But for what it mostly is, a Harlequin-level romance with some mystery elements, it works. Two high-school sweethearts are reunited by the death of the father of one of them, Ben, now a soldier bound for Afghanistan. His former love interest, Josephine, worked at the Navajo trading post owned by Ben’s father. Josephine discovers the body of Tom Stuart in the house behind the outpost. Police initially dismiss Tom’s death as a suicide, until they’re told that Tom was left-handed (an incredibly creaky plot device) and couldn’t have fired the gun from the position in which his body was found. Ben and Josephine join forces, of course, to solve the crime, but mostly this is a romance with misunderstandings, obstacles, dangers, and plenty of smoldering looks. For romance readers and die-hard Thurlo fans. --Connie Fletcher