SHORT CUT TO SANTA FE

According to plan, photographer Harriet Jeffries meets her lover, Toronto's police inspector John Sanders (Murder in Focus, 1989, etc.), at Santa Fe's tiny airport for the start of a vacation together. At the airport they're caught up in the plight of 11-year-old twins Caroline and Stuart, who've been left behind by the tour bus that usually drops them off near home (they take the bus home from boarding school on weekends). Harriet and John offer the children a lift, planning to follow the bus with its eight passengers as it heads for Taos. Instead, it travels ever deeper into the mountains and, as soon becomes clear, is being driven by someone other than reliable old Bert. Meanwhile, back in Taos, Harriet's falling-apart friend Kate Grosvenor waits for her in vain; the twins' parents are hysterical with worry; Bert's murdered body is found; and state troopers are scouring the rocky terrain. Rich, ruthless, influential racketeer Carl Deever, having turned the ""Old New Mexico"" tour into the tour from hell, is having second thoughts. Before it's all over the landscape is littered with corpses; the villains and the good guys are sorted out; Kate is on her way to recovery; and Deever is on his way to retribution. Plotwise it doesn't always add up, but so what. Suspense, romance, and compelling characters carry a chilling, charming, and very well-written tale of adventure.