WILD INFERNO
by Sandi Ault
A wildfire ravaging the border country of Colorado and New Mexico provides a handy spot for murder.
When fire breaks out, Jamaica Wild, liaison officer for the Bureau of Land Management’s fire team (Wild Indigo, 2007), is tasked with finding missing Ute Ned Spotted Cloud. Only after discovering a badly burnt firefighter does she find the incinerated body of Ned. The FBI learns that Ned was bashed to death with a shovel before the fire overtook him. And no wonder, since he may have been the most unpopular person in the tribe. A long life of callous affairs with women left him with one acknowledged daughter, her bitter mother and a plethora of enemies. Jamaica works with the FBI to solve the crime, but her other duties send her all over the fire zone as she arranges for archaeologists and anthropologists to mark sites that may be sacred or taboo to the members of the many tribes battling the blaze. She’s especially attentive to a group of Native Americans gathered on Chimney Rock for a special ceremony—a group that includes Jamaica’s spiritual teacher, Momma Anna, and Mountain, Jamaica’s wolf. Finding herself the target of a several murderous attacks, Jamaica must solve the puzzle to save her life.
Mystery takes a back seat to a sensitive look at Native-American culture and a compelling account of the fight to tame ever-increasing wildfires.