Shooting Chant

By David Thurlo and Aimée Thurlo

Book Overview

Once and FBI agent, Ella Clah is now a Special Investigator with the Navajo Police. She walks a tightrope between the Navajo and white worlds, fully accepted by neither but needed by both. Ella's brother, Clifford, a hataali or medicine man, says that her investigative skills are a gift from the spirits who guard and guide the Dineh, but Ella insists it's her FBI training that has honed her instincts.Ella's life is about to change in ways she can barely begin to imagine - she is newly pregnant, and though she knows who the father is, she will not marry him. In Navajo society, her child will be of her clan, and will be accepted by her family, no matter what - but how can she stay a police officer, exposing herself and her unborn child to terrible danger day after day?Given her current caseload, it's hard for Ella to put off making a final decision about her career. There's a near-riot at LabKote, a factory on the Reservation that produces high-quality vessels for medical labs. The Fierce Ones, an activist group of Navajo, are insisting that more native workers be hired by the firm - including a Navajo replacement for a manager recently found dead in his car, an apparent suicide. A sniper shoots at Ella as she drives to another crime scene - the home of State Senator James Yellowhair, who has been kidnapped.Feuding between traditionalist and modernist elements in the Navajo nation heats up with sabotage, vandalism, and murder, spurred by a rise in birth defects among the Dineh's livestock and rustling of sheep and cattle. Ella's personal concerns mount when officers investigating a break-in at the health clinic discover that the records of several pregnant women - including Ella - are missing. Then one of the pregnant women is murdered... .

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312870612
• ISBN13: 9780312870614
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Forge
• Length: 349 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Shooting Chant

This is the best book in the Ella series. It is sure nice to read a book set in the southwest that shows the real southwest. Some authors do not have a clue about New Mexico. The Thurlos have done excellent research. The book is an excellent example of this and is a great read.

Ella returns

I've been a fan of the Ella Clah novels from the beginning, and they just keep getting better and better. This one combines a complex mystery and Ella's personal problems. Even having a baby isn't entirely a personal matter when you factor in the relationships among the Navajo clans and the legendary past of Ella's family. The Thurlos do a terrific job of showing us the problems and conflicts of modern Navajo life. Lots of familiar characters return with Ella: her colleagues Justine, Big Ed and Doctor Roanhorse, her family Rose, Clifford and Lorretta, and her friends Kevin and Wilson. I'm already looking forward to the next adventure, to find out how the realities of motherhood affect Ella's life and career.

Two of my favorite mystery authors writes a suberb book

Former FBI agent Ella Clah works as a special investigator on the Navaho Indian Reservation, New Mexico. Ella's world turns upside down when she learns she is pregnant from a man she cares for but has no intention of marrying. At the same time Ella struggles with her personal dilemma, the reservation becomes a battleground between the traditionalists and the progressives. Someone is slaughtering animals raised using modern Anglo methods. The evidence points towards the traditionalists committing the animal killings, which increases the animosity and the schism between the two groups.An Anglo owned business that leases reservation land becomes the scene of a murder that appears to be the work of an angry traditionalist or two. Professionals break into the medical clinic and steal the records of pregnant women. Ella investigates all the happenings leading to her becoming a target. She uses her Anglo training and her Native American mystical intuition to uncover the identity of the killer.Readers who enjoy Tony Hillerman's mysteries will relish the enthralling SHOOTING CHANT. Aimee and David Thurlo show their writing talents as they provide a close look at the efforts of Native American traditionalists to preserve the culture in the modern world. The numerous subplots cleverly tie together with Ella,s pregnancy adding a special touch that humanizes the intrepid law enforcement official. The audience will look forward to future tales while first time readers will search for the previous novels.Harriet Klausner