Aimée Thurlo

David Thurlo

Once she was Professor Mary Naughton, investigative reporter, teacher, and free spirit. Now she is Sister Agatha of Our Lady of Hope, a cloistered, financially-struggling monastery in New Mexico. As an extern-a nun who handles her order's dealings with the outside world-she is used to having her faith and newly-acquired patience tested. But when popular chaplain Father Anselm is poisoned to death in the middle of Mass, Sister Agatha has to bring all her worldly skepticism and savvy instincts to uncover the truth before scandal and unjust suspicion destroy Our Lady of Hope's future. She's up against a hostile local sheriff, an ex-lover who's never forgiven her for 'abandoning' their life together. She's got no shortage of suspects-with-secrets outside-and inside-the monastery. And she'll have to race the clock to stop one remorseless murderer before there's more hell to pay...

A Sister Agatha Mystery

Bad Faith

A Lee Nez Novel (Lee Nez)

Second Sunrise

Sister Agatha of the Our Lady of Hope monastery in Bernalillo, New Mexico has become reknowned—and occasionally infamous— for her crime solving skills. Now she must bring her skills to bear on her most important case yet—her friend and ally Sheriff Tom Green is a suspect in the brutal murder of his rival in the upcoming election.

Bad Samaritan

Returning to her Navajo reservation after a stint with the FBI to oversee her family's struggles to balance their modern and traditional ways of life, Ella Clah investigates an attack on a powerful Navajo politician's son who had been attempting to bring satellite telephone service to the Rez. 15,000 first printing.

An Ella Clah Novel

Coyote's Wife

A Ella Clah Novel

Shooting Chant

Ella Clah returns in Aimee and David Thurlo's Tracking Bear. "Mystery readers who like their murders solved by applied intelligence will love Ella Clah." --Tony Hillerman A group of businessmen is working to open a uranium mine and nuclear power plant on the Navajo Reservation. The NEED project will provide cheap power to the Navajo nation, employ many who are out of work, and earn income for the tribe by selling surplus power to Arizona, New Mexico, and other western states. Investigating the murder of a Navajo cop during a break-in and robbery, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah learns that the dead man's father, a retired physicist, is strongly opposed to uranium mining and nuclear plants. Ella's mother, Rose, opposes the plans as well, taking as her cause the health of the workers and the land. Kevin Tolino, the father of Ella's daughter, hires a bodyguard after receiving threats because of his public support of the project. A Navajo community college teacher is assaulted, and his office and home ransacked-apparently by the same person who murdered the Navajo police officer. A tribal official who opposes NEED is murdered. Clues seem to lead to a major supporter of the nuclear project, but the man insists he's being framed. Other area murders are also linked to NEED supporters-but why would a group of wealthy businessmen kill their opponents when they could just outspend them? There has to be more going on than political wrangling, but Ella is fumbling in the dark, with uncooperative witnesses and few clues. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Tracking Bear

Change surrounds Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah. The father of her child seems ready to be more of a father, though it will alter the rhythm of all their lives and may hurt his political career. Ella's mother, Rose, has rediscovered her passion for politics and struggles to guide her people on the best way to walk in beauty. The Dineh seem to be ready to bring casino gambling to the Rez, despite the risk that the character of the Navajo Nation will be forever altered. Speaking eloquently against the proposal, Rose becomes a national celebrity. Ella has no time to think about how these changes will affect her and her two-year-old daughter. The Navajo Police Force is combating an increasingly violent wave of vandalism, always two steps behind despite their best efforts. Events come to a head with the terrorist takeover of a coal mine and power plant on the Reservation. Ella must keep the terrorists from blowing up the power plant-but how can she focus on being a cop when her daughter is missing? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Changing Woman

A serial killer stalks young Navajo men and women, and Police Special Investigator Ella Clah and her family may be next in his sights. Clues indicate that her father may have tried to stop this killer before his own murder 10 years ago.

Turquoise Girl

FBI area supervisor Simmons asks the Navajo Tribal Police to help locate Andrew Thomas, a federal agent who disappeared after interrupting a Navajo ritual being performed by a group of medicine men or hataaliis. Simmons voices his displeasure when Special Investigator Ella Clah is assigned to the case; he believes that Ella became an FBI agent, more than a decade earlier, due to affirmative action-and that she left because the job was too tough for her. Ella ignores Simmons' pettiness, knowing that finding the missing man is the highest priority. She won't allow family issues to get in the way, so she asks her daughter's father to become a full-time parent for the duration of her investigation. She even questions her brother, a hataalii himself, about Agent Thomas. Could a medicine man have punished Thomas for disturbing the Sing? Startlingly, Ella receives a disturbing cell phone call that seems to be from Thomas himself. He's trapped in a dark place, lost and hurt. Ella realizes that time is running out. With the hataaliis cleared, Ella follows up on Thomas's investigation into Social Security fraud. She is disturbed to see evidence that seems to point to her old friend and Thomas's immediate superior, FBI agent Blalock. Could Blalock steal money and assault one of his own men? Ella can't believe it. The fraud trail leads through a maze of paperwork, banks, government offices, mortuaries, and into the Navajos' most dearly held-beliefs about death. Only by finding the truth-and fast-will Ella be able to save Andrew Thomas. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

White Thunder

Former FBI agent Ella Clah is now a Special Investigator with the native police force. Her brother, Clifford, a medicine man, says that her investigative skills are gifts from the spirits who guard and guide the Navajo, but Ella insists it's her FBI training that has honed her instincts. The Navajo are in turmoil. The tribal police are spread thin throughout the vast reservation, trying to rein in gang violence, murderous drunk drivers, and race riots. Ella's newest assignment is to solve the murder of an old friend's fiancée, apparently killed during a gang-related robbery. Ella is shocked to discover signs of skinwalker activity in the woman's home--was her friend's fiancée a Navajo witch, a hereditary enemy of Ella's family? Ella must solve the murder, do something to stop drinking and driving on the Rez, and keep Navajo teenagers from killing each other, while trying to find and fight her oldest enemies. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Enemy Way

When the daughter of Senator Yellowhair is killed in a suspicious car accident, the Senator accuses Ella and the tribe's medical examiner, Dr. Carolyn Roanhorse, of falsifying the autopsy results. An outbreak of meningitis leads to more trouble when many of those who are vaccinated against the illness begin dying from a different, unidentified disease. Riots between Indian and white workers at the Navajo-owned mine stretch the resources of the tribal police even thinner. Convinced that solving one mystery means solving them all, Ella plunges into her investigations despite threats from all sides and her suspicions that Navajo witches are somehow involved. Ella Clah has sworn to protect her people from all menaces--spiritual or physical--and she's not going to back off now. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Bad Medicine

Blackening Song is the debut of Navajo FBI agent Ella Clah, who returns to the reservation to investigate the murder of her father, a minister. The ritual nature of the killing makes Ella's brother, a medicine man, the prime suspect. Without cooperation from the tribe, the FBI, or the local police, Ella must plumb the depths of the struggle between traditionalist and modernist forces among the Navajo to find her father's murderer. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Blackening Song

A construction crew found the first body. The cops found three more, in a cluster that lay on both sides of the border of the Navajo Reservation. Because some of the bodies were buried outside the Rez, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah and her team must work a delicate joint investigation with the New Mexico police. Identifying the dead isn't easy—some had been buried for years—and at first the cases look to be nothing but dead ends. Then one of the bodies turns out to be that of a missing man who was believed to have embezzled funds from his construction firm and suspicions focus on the man's partner. With no obvious links between any of the corpses and the anniversary of their deaths fast approaching, Ella feels frustrated by the investigation's lack of progress. Unless they can find what connects these victims, someone else may soon be killed. Ella's ability to concentrate is battered by worries about her teenage daughter, who has been skipping school, and her mother, who is cooking up a storm, a sure sign that trouble is brewing in the household. Black Thunder, an Ella Clah novel, is a police procedural mystery that should appeal to all readers. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Black Thunder

Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah is on the run. Justine, Ella's cousin and fellow officer, disappeared after the two women argued publicly over Justine's new boyfriend. Human bones are discovered at the spot where the younger woman had told her family she and Ella were to meet late one night. Suddenly Ella Clah, cop, is Ella Clah, murder suspect. Stunned by Justine's death, Ella has no time to mourn. Her former allies in the Navajo Police Department and the FBI are hot on her trail, using techniques she taught them to hunt her down. Ella has to find the real killers--and fast--before the Dineh act on a growing belief that Ella's mother, brother, and young daughter have become evil. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Red Mesa

Ella Clah is no longer an unsure young woman recently returned to the Navajo Reservation from a stint with the FBI; she has found her place in her tribe, her clan, and her family. She has seen the Diné at their worst—and at their best—as they balance the modern era with the traditional Navajo way of life. Ervin Benally, son-in-law of the powerful Navajo businesswoman and politician Abigail Yellowhair, plans to bring satellite telephone service to the Rez. When Benally is attacked and another man is killed, Yellowhair orders Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah assigned to the case. Ella is determined to find out who is behind the attacks, which include elements of Navajo witchcraft. Coyote's Wife, which introduces a new source of tension in Ella's personal life, will satisfy both the returning reader and those new to this series.

Aimee and David Thurlo's newest mystery Ghost Medicine, featuring Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah. Ella takes all her cases personally, but some cases are more personal than others. The murder of Harry Ute is one of those—not only because Ella and Harry dated, years ago, but because Harry was once a member of her investigative team. Ella's team is as close to her as family and a blow against one is a blow against all. Harry's been working for Bruce "Teeny" Little, a local security expert, but despite their long friendship, Teeny won't tell Ella much, just the job involves theft of government property. The dead man was found in an isolated area of the Rez that is reportedly haunted by skinwalkers and the scattered residents are too frightened of the Navajo witches to tell the police much. County cop Dan Nez is also looking into the government thefts. The two detectives—each top dog in their own territory—will have to share jurisdiction, something complicated by their growing attraction to each other. Ella finds evidence that connects Harry's murder to the secret sale of previously unknown Navajo artifacts. If Harry discovered a hidden—and illegal—dig, the artifact smugglers might have killed him to protect their lucrative operation. Identifying the murderer isn't going to be easy. But Harry was one of her own and Ella is determined to bring his killer to justice. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ghost Medicine

Returning to the Navajo Reservation and solving her father's murder taught former FBI Agent Ella Clah a great deal about herself and her people, the Dineh. She has begun to accept that that there is more to the world than can be explained by FBI training and forensic science. Newly hired as a Special Investigator with the tribal police, Ella investigates the brutal murders of several of the Dineh's "living treasures," Navajos esteemed for their knowledge of the tribe's religious and cultural wisdom. Illusion and ritual duel with police procedures and science as Ella strives to find out who is destroying the heart of the tribe. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Death Walker

Aimee Thurlo

Decades ago, uranium mining on the reservation poisoned the land, the water, and the Navajo people. Despite this dark history, the tribe has voted to build a nuclear power plant on the Rez to provide electricity to all the Dineand gto earn money by selling power. A group of activists is determined to stop the plant by whatever means necessary ..."--Publisher description.

Earthway

"Thief in Retreat is a thoroughly absorbing, sharply drawn story with a protagonist who is courageous, intelligent, and endearing. Sister Agatha, with her restored Harley Davidson motorcycle and ex-police dog, Pax are a dynamite team that's hard to beat... I eagerly await Sister Agatha's next adventure." – Earlene Fowler, author of Delectable Mountains "Aimee and David Thurlo's nimble plotting leaves readers turning pages while Our Lady of Hope Monastery's compelling characters draw you into their richly textured world. Sister Agatha is a blessing and you'll believe in Prey for a Miracle!" --Julia Spencer-Fleming, Edgar finalist and author of To Darkness and to Death Our Lady of Hope is an aging monastery run by a cloistered order in rural New Mexico. Perennially cash-strapped for needed repairs and maintenance, when the local diocese offers to pay for a new water well it is, well, a godsend. But there's a catch – in return, they want the monastery to house a novice nun from a different order who needs a place to stay locally while she teaches at the Catholic school and an order to take responsibility for her while she's there. And Sister Josephine – Sister Jo as she likes to be called – is a handful. Loud, boisterous, free with her opinions, inappropriate, impulsive and snores loud enough to wake the dead, the young nun doesn't fit in well with the contemplative order and the older nuns of Our Lady of Hope. If the teeth-grinding of the older nuns and the repetitive deep sighs of the Reverand Mother weren't enough, there's also the increasingly dangerous sounding threats that arrive at the monestary. Since Sister Agatha has been involved in her fair share of investigations, there's no lack of people who might harbor a grudge against her. But is she really the target? And is Sister Jo – who arrived right before the threats began – somehow entangled in this increasingly dangerous web?

The Prodigal Nun

As a people, the Navajo seek to walk in beauty and find a balance between modern and traditional culture. As a mother, a daughter, and a member of the Navajo Nation, Ella Clah finds her own way to walk—but as a police officer, she seeks both justice and truth. When Never-ending-snake begins, Ella is returning from a trip to Washington, DC, where she has been presented with a lucrative offer of employment with a private security firm. The catch? She would have to leave the Reservation. And while Ella has lived off the Rez before, it would be a life-altering experience for her daughter, Dawn. Before Ella has a chance to even begin making up her mind, gunfire sends her and her companions diving for cover. Who is the target? War hero and alternative fuel lobbyist Adam Lonewolf, politician and tribal attorney Kevin Tolino, or Ella herself? As a Navajo Police Special Investigator, Ella has made more than one enemy. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

David Thurlo

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