Books in the Ella Clah series

A serial killer stalks young Navajo men and women . . . and Ella Clah''s family might be next in his sights, in Aimee and David Thurlo''s Turquoise Girl! Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah has seen a lot of death in the decade since she returned to the Reservation, but nothing quite as bad as a series of violent murders of young Navajo. Something about the crime scene reminds Ella of her days in the FBI, and she calls on Agent Blalock for help. And that''s not the only link to Ella''s past-clues indicates that Ella''s father may have tried to stop this killer before his own murder. Working long hours, desperate to identify and stop the serial killer before he strikes again, Ella manages to squeeze in a few dates with Reverend Bilford Tome. Ella''s father was a man of the cloth as well-is Ella following her mother''s path, falling for a man whose faith she does not share?

What seems to be a carjacking gone wrong leads to the death of Jimmy Blacksheep, a Navajo member of the New Mexico National Guard recently returned from Iraq. When Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah receives a mysterious package in the mail, she begins to suspect that Jimmy''s death is part of something larger. Complicating the case is the fact that Jimmy''s brother, Samuel Blacksheep, is also a cop, on the Farmington PD. Samuel is also ostensibly investigating Jimmy''s death, but Ella wonders why Jimmy sent his secret message to her rather than his own brother. If Jimmy didn''t trust Samuel, perhaps Ella shouldn''t either. When even the FBI''s experts are unable to figure out the dead man''s message, Ella realizes that she must use Navajo lore, not cryptography, to decode it. Tantalizing clues link Jimmy''s death to his military service-but what could the medic have seen in Iraq that would make him a target for murder back home?Ella''s personal life seems just as complicated as her case. Her mother, Rose Destea, marries her long-time beau, Herman Cloud, and moves in with him. While Ella is delighted to see her mother happy, she cannot help but worry about making sure her daughter, Dawn, is safe and cared for at all times. Dawn''s father asks for a change in custody arrangements that will reduce Ella to a weekend mother-a much easier fit with her workload but something that will take a terrible toll on her heart.

When Never-ending-snake begins, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah is returning from Washington, DC, where she was offered a lucrative job with a private security firm. Taking the job would mean uprooting her daughter, but it might give the young teen opportunities she'd never see on the Reservation.As Ella and her companions deplane, gunfire sends them diving for cover. When the shooting stops, a Navajo war hero has been mortally wounded-but was alternative fuel lobbyist Nelson Lonewolf the intended victim? Or was the gunman aiming for powerful tribal attorney Kevin Tolino? Or for Ella herself? Ella struggles to find the killers while helping the tribe find a way to move forward with the alternative-fuel project and protecting her family-and Kevin, her daughter's father.Never-ending-snake, a tense police procedural, is part of the Ella Clah mystery series.

Blackening Song is the debut of Navajo FBI agent Ella Clah, who returns to the reservation to investigate the murder of her father, a minister. The ritual nature of the killing makes Ella's brother, a medicine man, the prime suspect. Without cooperation from the tribe, the FBI, or the local police, Ella must plumb the depths of the struggle between traditionalist and modernist forces among the Navajo to find her father's murderer.