Four-star review of Red Mesa by Aimee and David Thurlo
This early Ella Clah novel gives a superb look at the
struggles of juggling traditional and modern ways by a police officer/mother on
the Navajo reservation. I was reading this at the time I traveled to the Four
Corners through Farmington and Shiprock and noticed how well the book
maintained a sense of place. Ella’s friend, partner and cousin Justine goes
missing and clues indicate she’s dead. The only way Ella can prove her own
innocence is to find out what happened but factions are working to convict her
of a crime. Some of her choices were questionable to me, but her life is so
different from mine that I accepted them. All of the characters are believable,
but especially Ella, her mother who’s trying to take care of Ella’s toddler
daughter as she ages, and the little girl herself.
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