EARTHWAY

A nuclear power plant on the Navajo reservation is either hope for a better future or the devil’s work, depending on your viewpoint.

Navajo police officer Ella Clah, daughter of a Christian minister and a traditionalist mother, has balanced her life by following neither path. Now Ella’s personal relationship with the Rev. Ford Tome is up in the air. When he’s almost killed and the department bomb expert is badly injured in an explosion at the local community college—the first of many near-fatalities here—she has to decide if the bomber is an opponent of the new power plant or a criminal avenger from Ford’s mysterious past as an FBI agent. Ford has been investigating Professor Jane Lee because the FBI thinks she might be involved in a terrorist plot to destroy the power plant. After his dog is almost killed, Ford moves to the heavily fortified compound of Ella’s computer-expert friend Teeny Little, who provides safety and lots of high-tech equipment to assist his investigation. Despite help from a local FBI agent and the tribal police, eager to catch the person who nearly claimed the life of their explosives expert, Ford and Ella are almost killed by snipers who are part of a fast-moving group of homegrown terrorists.

The informative look at conflict on the Rez between old ways and new that the Thurlos always provide (Coyote’s Wife, 2008, etc.) comes packaged this time with an unusually tense mystery.