When P.I. Lena Jones s Pima Indian partner Jimmy Sisiwan is arrested in the remote northern Arizona town of Walapai Flats, Lena closes the Desert Investigations office and rushes to his aid. What she finds is a town up in arms over a new uranium mine located only ten miles from the magnificent Grand Canyon. Jimmy s sister-in-law, founder of Victims of Uranium Mining, has been murdered, but the opposing side is taken hits, too. Ike Donohue, the mine s public relations flak, is found shot to death, casting suspicion on Jimmy and his entire family. During Lena s investigation, she finds not only a community decimated by dangerous mining practices, but a connection to actor John Wayne and the mysterious deaths resulting fromthe 1953 filming of The Conqueror. Gabe Boone, a wrangler on that doomed film, is still alive, but the only person the agedman will confide in is John Wayne s ghost. It s up to Lena to penetrate Gabe s defenses and find out thedecades-old tragedy no one in Walapai Flats wants to talk about. By delving into the area s history, Lena learns that old sins never die; they re still taking lives. As with Desert Wives: Polygamy Can Be Murder, this seventh book in the Lena Jones series exposes real life crimes, and the reason why high-ranking governmentofficials want those crimes to remain under wraps.

"