To Bury the Dead

This roughly plotted mystery begins as Tucson, Ariz., botanist Gray Napoleon drives the body of his friend Ryder Joaquin back from Los Angeles for a proper Tohono O'odham tribal burial. When he stops for gas at a lonely desert town called Why, someone steals the coffin from the rear of his old four-wheel. Back in Tucson, two bruisers named Ben and Jerry beat him badly and demand to know what happened to the body. The thugs work for Torrance Power, an octogenarian who owns much of the land and many of the politicians in Southern Arizona. Power tells Gray that a precious Tohono O'odham calendar stick, made from a saguaro cactus rib and inscribed with symbols of important moments in tribal history, was probably in the missing coffin. Power threatens to harm Gray's Apache friend Maria Kazhe unless he finds the stick. But is it worth killing for? Something is, for Ryder's French girlfriend Caroline is murdered during a fire at the historic Congress Hotel. The answer may be hidden in Caroline's dying words and a cherished local landmark. Despite the cobbled narrative and some cursorily developed characters, notably Maria and Caroline, Laird (Bowman's Line, 1995) writes with knowledge and appreciation for the modern desert, where natural beauty and historic tradition seem locked in permanent battle with urban expansion. (Apr.)