Native American Mysteries

Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life.

What begins as a typical day for Officer Bernadette Manuelito - serving a bench warrant, dealing with a herd of cattle obstructing traffic, and stumbling across a crime scene - takes an unexpected twist when she’s called to help find an old friend. Years ago, Bernie and Maya were roommates, but time and Maya’s struggles with addiction drove them apart. Now Maya’s brother asks Bernie to find out what happened to his sister. Tracing Maya’s whereabouts, Bernie learns that her old friend had confessed to the murder of her estranged husband, a prominent astronomer.

It’s the go-go 1980s when journalist Wally Pearson gets mugged in Times Square. It’s a jolt that prompts him to throw away his career and open a cafe in his small hometown. Little does he know that in doing so he’s about to get entrapped in the collision of fame, fortune, ambition and love in the northwoods of Wisconsin—all tempered with more than a little delusion. His Loon Town Cafe is the common meeting ground for many different forces. Chicago millionaire Henry Van Elkind plots from his lavish summer camp a transformation of the region. The Native American tribe, whose ...

From Yeti to Thunderbirds, what secrets lie hidden in the remaining wilderness of America? Join us in a series of novels based on mysteries, tales and legends; the first one being our most beloved beast, Bigfoot. Learn just why no one has ever been able to find the bodies, and based on indigenous stories, find out what our government is trying to hide. Meet Piper: she thought she knew a few things for certain: she was going to finish her dissertation; graduate, teach, do research, find a nice professor, get married, have 2.5 kids, and live happily ever after. Then she went to Baxter State ...

The Rogue River Incident – Case XI, Book II (A Paranormal Mystery with Sci-Fi Twists) The invasion isn’t over. And this time, it’s personal. In Rogue River, Oregon, the unexplainable forces that upended Mitch Wilde’s life are far from finished. As the town teeters on the edge of chaos, Mitch’s wife, Mabey, is dragged into the fight, forcing him to make impossible choices to save her and the place they call home. With his loyal friend Jack and the gruff yet brilliant paranormal investigator neighbor, Jasper, Mitch uncovers shocking truths about the forces at play. But to survive, ...

Jane Teaberry hopes her life will settle down after all the trouble she found last summer. She moves into her college dorm with her friend, Peaches Parker, and just as they are settling into college life, one of the students is attacked during a break-in at the Archaeology lab where Peaches’ dad works. Two sand paintings from a recent dig in New Mexico are missing and Jane is determined to find out why. On the way to the library to learn more about them, someone pushes Jane out in front of a car. Trouble follows the girls when Jane, Peaches, and her cousin Ashley go on a road trip out ...

Doing a good deed for a relative offers the perfect opportunity for Sergeant Jim Chee and his wife, Officer Bernie Manuelito, to get away from the daily grind of police work. But two cases will call them back from their short vacation and separate them - one near Shiprock and the other at iconic Monument Valley.

When tribal police officer Bernadette Manuelito arrives to speak at a program for at-risk teens, she discovers chaos. Everyone is concerned about a beloved instructor who went out into the wilds of the rugged lava wilderness bordering Ramah Navajo Reservation to find a missing girl. The instructor vanished somewhere in the volcanic landscape known as El Malpais. The instructor's disappearance mirrors a long-ago search that may be connected to a case in which the legendary Joe Leaphorn played a crucial role.

In an air-conditioned university office, a man lies dead, brutally bludgeoned. A hundred miles away, in the high, arid New Mexico mountain country that Sheriff Cliff Lansing is sworn to protect, an animal is devastating ranchers' livestock, and is now turning to human prey.... For Lansing, the two cases are linked. The murder victim was part of an archaeological dig, and a local Indian believes that the animal killings have been unleashed by the excavations.

Book six in the Littlemoon Investigations series. Lennox Easton has one hell of a problem. Someone wants her dead. Her whole family has been eradicated in one single decade, and she’s the last woman standing. It’s all hers, and there’s nothing she wants more than to escape it all. Yes, she’s rich, entitled, and the talk of the town, but not everything is what it seems. Lennox is about her art. She’s about the peace, and then…she’s about one very cranky man. When she busts into Littlemoon Investigations, she needs their help. Her time is running out, and she knows it won’t be...

Reunited by a grave robber and a corpse, Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is trying to determine the identity of a murder victim, while Officer Jim Chee is arresting Smithsonian conservator Henry Highhawk for ransacking the sacred bones of his ancestors. But with each peeled-back layer, it becomes shockingly clear that these two cases are mysteriously connected - and that others are pusuing Highhawk, with lethal intentions. And the search for answers to a deadly puzzle is pulling Leaphorn and Chee into the perilous arena of superstition, ancient ceremony, and living gods.

As an archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syd Walker spends her days in Rhode Island trying to protect the land's indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own. While Syd is dedicated to her job, she’s haunted by a night of violence she barely escaped in her Oklahoma hometown 15 years ago. Though she swore she’d never go back, the past comes calling. When a skull is found near the crime scene of her youth, just as her sister, Emma Lou, vanishes, Syd knows she must return home.

In Alaska, people disappear every day. In Aleut detective Kate Shugak's Park, they've been disappearing a lot lately. Hikers head into the wilderness unprepared and get lost. Miners quit without notice at the busy Suulutaq Mine. Suicides leave farewell notes and vanish. Not only are Park rats disappearing at an alarming rate, but so is life in the Park as Kate knows it.

A man is murdered in Seattle's Pioneer Square. The killer is caught just blocks away, blood still on his hands. When it's discovered that both killer and victim belong to the same Native American tribe, the tribe asserts jurisdiction, and homicide DA Dave Brunelle has to prosecute the case in their tribal court. It's bad enough when the defense attorney claims the killing was justified under the ancient custom of "blood revenge". It gets worse when blood revenge turns into a blood feud.

The Rogue River Incident – Case XI, Book I (Part 1 of a 2-Book Set) In Rogue River, Oregon, life is peaceful—until a violent, unexplainable attack shatters the town’s quiet existence. Mitch Wilde, a professional outdoor photographer, is thrust into the heart of the mystery when his best friend is shot with a dissolving arrow—a wound that vanishes before anyone can explain it. As strange events escalate, his eccentric neighbor—an investigator of the unexplained—presents chilling evidence of an invisible threat looming over the region. But the true nightmare begins when Mitch ...

Don't blink A gripping thrill ride begins when Oklahoma private investigator Buck McDivit witnesses a murder and finds himself possessing an ancient artifact with mystical powers. The investigation leads him to the Spiro Mounds Archeological Museum, where he meets the gorgeous Chief Archeologist Thorn Little Deer and discovers someone recently stole the artifact he now possesses—the priceless Black Cup of Oklahoma. A deadly ex-Army Ranger with the nickname Blade may be responsible for both the theft and the murder. As Buck sets out to catch the thief, he joins a cryptid expedition to the ...

Sergeant Jim Chee’s vacation to beautiful Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell has a deeper purpose. He’s on a quest to unravel a sacred mystery his mentor, the Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, stumbled across decades earlier. Chee’s journey takes a deadly turn when, after a prayerful visit to the sacred Rainbow Bridge, he spots a body floating in the lake. The dead man, a Navajo with a passion for the canyon’s ancient rock art, lived a life filled with many secrets. Discovering why he died and who was responsible involves Chee in an investigation that puts his own life at risk.

Dreams tell old man Paul T'Sosi he's dying. So why is Navajo trickster Magpie trying to tell him a far more terrifying secret? Hungry for revenge, Ma'iitsoh Dine', the Navajo Wolf, is out for blood. Summoning his darkest powers, the Witch of Ganado circles tribal investigator Charlie Yazzie's young son and close friends. Some may survive the witch's evil vendetta, but others will die to settle an old score.

Ophaned at an early age, Susanna Warren was raised by her grandfather to love the mountains and respect the Native American customs. She is excited when she receives an assignment that would bring her home to her beloved Sierra Nevada Mountains to work as an archeologist and historian for the Native American Branch of the Smithsonian Institute. Her job is to search for areas the Washoe visited and document any rock art or artifacts in the area. But her first day on the mountain, she inadvertently steps into the path of thieves caught in the act of stealing rock art. A shotgun blast narrowly...

She found love in the West but no peace. He found forgiveness but no rest. Now a new adversary threatens their future together: a proud Lakota warrior named Crazy Horse. Southern war widow Annabelle is eager to start a new life in a Montana gold rush town with Union cavalryman Josey Angel. But the infamous gunman has one last debt to repay. Then a band of warriors seizes Annabelle in a bloody raid, placing her at the center of the deadliest Indian war America has ever seen. Her captor, Crazy Horse, seeks to kill the white men who have trespassed on his people’s land, even as he’s ...