Desert Redemption: A Lena Jones Mystery

In Jones’s electrifying 10th and final Lena Jones mystery (after 2017’s Desert Vengeance), Scottsdale, Ariz., PI Lena is approached by Harold Slow Horse, one of Arizona’s leading artists, who insists that she investigate the Kanati Spiritual Center, a compound promoting a mishmash of Native American symbolism and philosophy, where his flighty ex-wife, Chelsea, has taken up residence. Lena reluctantly agrees, and discovers that Chelsea is thriving on the fresh air, sunshine, and gourmet cuisine on offer at the center. When the body of a woman with a possible link to the center turns up in the desert, Lena begins to think that there is “something more horrific than religious plagiarism going on at Kanati.” Lena gets on a trail that leads her at long last to answers about her troubled past: “I was an orphan... I’d been found comatose on a Phoenix street at the age of four with a bullet in my head. No one came forward to claim me.” The resolution will satisfy series fans, though they’ll be sad to see the last of Lena. (Mar.)