Mourning Dove: An Ella Clah Novel (Ella Clah Novels) [Mass Market Paperback]

Aimee Thurlo (Author), David Thurlo (Author)

Book Description

Series: Ella Clah Novels | Publication Date: March 6, 2007

What did the dead man know?
 
Jimmy Blacksheep, a Navajo member of the New Mexico National Guard recently returned from Iraq, is killed in what appears to be a carjacking gone wrong.  But when Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah receives a mysterious package in the mail, she begins to suspect that Jimmy's death is part of something larger. 
 
Ella finds she must use Navajo lore, not FBI cryptography, to decode Jimmy's message.  Tantalizing clues link Jimmy's death to his military service--but what could the medic have seen in Iraq that would make him a target for murder back home?
 
Ella's personal life seems just as complicated as her case.  Her mother, Rose Destea, marries her long-time beau, Herman Cloud.  Then the father of Ella's daughter, Dawn, asks for a change in custody arrangements that will reduce Ella to a weekend mother--a much easier fit with her workload but something that will take a terrible toll on her heart.  
 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When an apparent carjacking takes the life of a tribesman recently returned from Iraq in the Thurlos' solid 12th Ella Clah novel (after 2005's White Thunder), the Navajo Tribal Police Special Investigator finds enough differences between this incident and the reservation's spate of carjackings to suspect the scenario is a coverup for murder. Ella's suspicions increase when fellow returning National Guardsmen describe the victim, Jimmy Blacksheep, as never having been a "team player." Now Clah and her officers must learn what sort of games these men were playing. The key lies in the manuscript pages of a tale the dead man wrote based on animals both familiar to and dissimilar from those of Navajo mythology. The handsome new pastor at Ella's cousin's church offers his considerable investigative skills and mysteriously high security clearance to help break Blacksheep's code. Add some new friction between Ella and her daughter Dawn's father, plus a significant announcement from Ella's mother, Rose, and you've got an all-around satisfying adventure. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

 "The Thurlos' popular series has long brought Navajo culture to life; in Mourning Dove Ella must face great changes in her life and outsmart a murderer.  [The novel also] celebrates the legendary Navajo code talkers of World War II."--Library Journal
 
"Special Investigator Ella Clah of the Navajo Tribal Police has murder on her hands and something close to that in her heart."--Kirkus Reviews on Mourning Dove
 
 "An all-around satisfying adventure."--Publishers Weekly on Mourning Dove
 
"A suspenseful read.  Ella is a charismatic, believable protagonist, and her quest to use old Navajo teachings in her everyday life makes her a character that readers will thoroughly enjoy."--Romantic Times BookReviews on Mourning Dove
 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books (March 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765350351
• ISBN-13: 978-0765350350
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IRAQ BRINGS TROUBLE TO THE REZ, May 14, 2006

By 

charles falk (Novato, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mourning Dove: An Ella Clah Novel (Ella Clah Novels) (Hardcover)

This is the best of the half dozen Thurlo novels I've read. Ellen Clah, head of the Navajo Reservation Major Crimes Unit, must find out who killed Jimmy Blacksheep, a Navajo national guardsman, who was on his way home from serving in Iraq. The rental car he was driving is missing. The obvious suspects are a car-jacking ring that has been operating on the Rez for some time. Clah, however, quickly decides that Blacksheep's murder is not simply a botched car-jacking.

MOURNING DOVE is more purely a police procedural than the other Clah mysteries I've read. Navajo life and traditions form the background rather than the foreground of this story. Clah's latest family problems are woven smoothly into the non-stop police action. In addition to the tribal police, the Farmington PD, the county sheriff's office, the FBI, the ATF, the CIA, and the US Army CID are drawn into the widening investigation. One wishes those agencies worked as well together in the real world as they do in this Thurlo novel.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Navajo culture, May 14, 2007

By 

Yvonne Adams (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mourning Dove: An Ella Clah Novel (Ella Clah Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Well paced mystery as usual with the Thurlos. I like that they sprinkle in bits & pieces of Navajo culture into the story. The end of the mystery of the death of the soldier did not turn out as I thought it would. What happens with Ella's romance? I guess I will have to purchase the next book to find out.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mourning Dove, April 10, 2007

By 

V. Kennedy "book crazed" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mourning Dove: An Ella Clah Novel (Ella Clah Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is another great mystery in the Ella Clah Series. I've read all the books in the series and enjoyed every one of them. I can hardly wait to get my hands on the next installment, (Turquoise Girl). I would recommend these books to all mystery lovers!