Desert Wind: A Lena Jones Mystery

Webb pulls no punches in exploring another human rights issue in her excellent seventh mystery starring Arizona PI Lena Jones (after 2009’s Desert Lost). Lena follows her Pima Indian partner, Jimmy Sisiwan, to his hometown, Walapai Flats, where his brother, Ted Olmstead, is being held as a material witness in the murder of Ike Donohue, a public relations whiz who represented the soon-to-open Black Basin Uranium Mine. The mine’s owner, Roger Tosches, once operated another mine that years earlier caused many cancer deaths and polluted the Navaho reservation on which it was located. Webb also charts the impact of aboveground testing of atomic bombs in Nevada on Downwinders, those who unknowingly breathed the poisonous air and ate contaminated food. A prickly but perceptive East Coast journalist and a remarkably sophisticated county sheriff help clarify the situation for Lena, who comes to realize she can’t cure all the areas ills. Author tour. (Feb.)