TAHOE JADE

The greed for jade sculptures drives Borg’s inventive new Owen McKenna thriller.

In this 19th volume of the series, Detective Owen McKenna reluctantly takes on a difficult client. Former firefighter Jade Jaso received a death threat. The reason? The caller claims she pushed a fellow firefighter to his death in a deadly warehouse blaze. Life has been hard for Jade recently. The same fire claimed three of her fingers, forcing her to retire. Also, the dead firefighter and his acquaintance may have sexually assaulted Jade the previous night. Jade returned home to her family’s ranch near Tahoe only to have her father, Billy, die in a mysterious accident. Then, while Owen was busy identifying suspects who might threaten Jade, she and her three horses disappear in an apparent abduction. In Billy’s glass-blowing workshop, Owen discovers a letter from President Abraham Lincoln to California Gov.-elect Leland Stanford. He and Brady Harper, a Stanford scholar, piece together that Jade’s abduction may tie into a pair of jade lion sculptures, once given to Stanford in exchange for jobs. Jade’s abductor assumes that Billy told her where the lions are hidden. Now Owen; his girlfriend, Street Casey; and Owen’s law enforcement friends must locate Jade in time. Kudos to Borg for continually finding new angles to explore about his hometown, Lake Tahoe. This time out, it starts with an 1861 letter stolen from a Pony Express rider in that area, which leads to an exploration of Basque sheepherders who worked the hills around Tahoe. Finally, there’s a cipher developed by a Greek historian thrown in for good measure. Nothing is ever obvious in a Borg mystery, and he makes the reader think. Owen and his Great Dane, Spot, take center stage; less involved are Street and Owen’s police pals. The intellectual Brady is a welcome addition. Plenty of thrills and danger unfold as Owen works to solve a 150-year-old historical mystery.

A satisfying regional mystery that mines local history.