Native American Suspense

James "Orlando" Sherwood has resurrected the old Shadow Dance religion, having his followers dance for days at a time for the promise of an Indian paradise. And when lawyer Vicky Holden's estranged husband is found murdered, Father John O'Malley believes that Orlando has more to do with it than he lets on. But to get the proof, Father John and Vicky Holden will have to learn to dance to his music.

FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed, a Modoc Indian from California, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator Emmett Parker, a Comanche from Oklahoma, are a team, sent by the Feds wherever there are problems in tribal territory.

By blood, bone and history, Austin Bullock is now chief of his nation, responsible for maintaining the welfare of his people and the land. By choice, he left the reservation years ago to teach high-school history, to coach basketball in the white man's school, and to seek an identity apart from his Native American heritage. Now the waters of Lost Man Marsh and the song of the Tie-snake call Austin to return. Someone outside the Nation has sinister plans for the people who live there.

Someone has left three dead Shoshones on an historic battlefield, positioned to mimic the bodies of those Arapahos killed in the slaughter. Frankie Montana, attorney Vicky Holden's latest client, is a frequent guest of the reservation's holding cells, and after a recent heated encounter with the three dead men, is the number one suspect in their deaths. But despite his faults, Vicky doesn't believe he is capable of murder.

After four women disappear from the Taos Pueblo reservation, Deputy Eva “Lightning Dance” Duran dives into the case. For her, it’s personal. Among the missing is her best friend, Paloma, a heroin addict who left behind an eighteen-year-old son. Eva senses a lack of interest from the department as she embarks on the investigation. But their reluctance only fuels her fire. Eva teams up with tribal police officer and longtime friend Cruz “Wolf Song” Romero to tackle a mystery that could both ruin her reputation and threaten her standing in the tribe.

In the shadow of a massive boulder on Oklahoma’s Big Rock Prairie, a squirrel hunter discovers a charred skeleton in a homemade charcoal kiln. Johnston County deputy Hannah Bond and Chickasaw Lighthorse police sergeant Bill Maytubby are called to the scene and soon identify the victim as a young Chickasaw man from a nearby town. What begins as the search for a killer soon throws Maytubby and Bond into the deep end of a conspiracy that puts both the victim’s family and the officers themselves at risk.

Accident or homicide? State trooper Gabriel Hawke is called to a vehicle on fire. When the steam and smoke clears, a charred body is slumped over the steering wheel. The Muzzleloader Rendezvous has attendees from all over the Pacific Northwest, but it’s the local club that raises Hawke’s suspicions.

They say you can't go back home, but Marin Sinclair, end-of-life doula, never felt she had the right to call the Navajo reservation home, and she certainly never expected that answering a plea for help from a long ago friend would put her life in jeopardy. Dinetah, the Navajo Nation, holds some dark memories for her, but what about her life then would make anyone want to kill her?

The murder of an esteemed archaeologist is fueling an already heated war between natives and the academics who excavate their land. And when the coroner confirms that the victim was cannibalized, the story takes a twisted turn. Private eye Howard Moon Deer and ex-police chief Jack Wilder are on the case. The killing appears to be a modern mimicry of the Anasazi's rumored past - one the tribe thinks would be best left buried. But Howard and Jack must search for clues even if it means digging up sacred land. As they struggle to fight tribal politics, the killer strikes again.

When Howard Moon Deer's girlfriend Aria storms from his cabin in the middle of the night, he just considers it another conflict in their tempestuous relationship. But when he finds her Jeep abandoned down the road with no sign of her nearby, his instincts lead him on an investigation that uncovers the dark underbelly of a trendy southwestern town.

Shortly after private eye Howard Moon Deer decides to settle down with his latest lady love, he accepts a new case that takes him away from the home front and introduces him to the dangerous passions that drive San Geronimo's thriving art scene. Howard and ex-police commander Jack Wilder have been hired to investigate Sherman Stone, a man notorious for his torrid liaisons and low-life friends. Rumor has it that he's planning to have his wealthy wife killed. But before Howard can separate fact from fiction, a local hobo is murdered, and then Sherman himself meets an untimely end.

Dela Alvaro is the main suspect in the stabbing death of a man she stopped from beating his wife to death. The detective she abhors is ready to toss her in jail and not look for any other suspects. When FBI Special Agent Quinn Pierce is called in and Tribal Officer Heath Seaver is forbidden to work the case, Dela decides to find the killer.

What started out as a favor and a leisurely trip into the mountains, soon turns State Trooper Gabriel Hawke’s life upside down. The snowstorm they were trying to beat comes early, a horse accident breaks Dani Singer’s leg, and Hawke finds a body in the barn at Charlie’s Lodge.

How far would you go to protect a loved one? Would you tamper with evidence? Commit arson? Allow a prime suspect to remain at large? Pegasus Quincy and her former partner, Shepherd Malone, have some difficult choices ahead when Shep’s daughter is caught with a murder weapon in her hand. It doesn’t help when the detective on the case has problems of his own. When he applies to the sheriff’s department, he conveniently forgets to mention that he was terminated from his previous position under a cloud of fraud.

On a remote island off the coast of Maine, a troubled family is trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and start over. But, unbeknownst to them, the property they have inherited is steeped in ancient magic - magic that could seek to destroy and devour them.

After a month of mental and spiritual leave, Janice sends Zack on a simple mission to locate a cave containing an ancient earthen pot known only through the ravings of a delirious and dying man, somewhere in the Matilija Wilderness. To his mind, it is a task beneath his rank. And his partner Eagle Feather is taking a college course and is unavailable. But Zack dutifully travels to Ojai, California, locates a guide, and hikes into the wilderness to find the cave. What he doesn't know it is not just any cave, and not just any pot, for inside it lurks a strange and deadly disease.

Cold case disappearances in Western Montana gave renewed relevance to a local Native American legend of Saka'am Skaltamiax, a malevolent entity from the caverns of Great Northern Mountain. But Sheriff Jim Buchanan believed in his daughter, Junior Deputy Alma Rose Two Elk, when she told him, “Today, I saw a flesh and blood man. That’s the killer we’re looking for.”

Mortician Tennessee England lives to honor the dead. But a slow season means she’s back freelancing as a party planner. Doctor Phillip Saint James warns the stress might worsen her cerebral aneurysm, causing all sorts of mystifying symptoms. To her disgust, he’s right. She’s been hallucinating a sexy ghost samurai all damn day. Or has she? His icy touch on the nape of her neck feels awfully real! So do his dire warnings that she must choose a side: mortal or immortal.

In the dense jungles of 1530 Peru, King Manco Inca finds himself in a hell that he cannot escape. The evil and vicious Pizarro Brothers and their fellow Spanish conquistadors have wreaked havoc on his lands and have conquered his kingdom. A violently real portrayal of the Spanish Conquest of the New World, Brothers and Kings is an epic historical-fiction thriller that presents men at their best and their most cruel.

Summer of Hard Choices is a mystery with a mission to find the truth. In the first novella Summer of Change, PerryAnn’s parents died when their VW bus careened off the road. Now, 10 years later, she and MatiLou embark on the quest to find out what happened that fateful day. In the search of truth, they brush imminent danger. PerryAnn deals with trauma from losing her family. MatiLou still deals with scars from bullying during her childhood. The truth about the accident offers some solace, yet they have hard choices to make as they navigate their experiences.